Ah, but you're talking for long-distance trains about Germany. Totally different critter.

Where I lived in SF, I could walk 5 minutes to a bus that ran every hour to Castro/Market, or later one that ran every 1/2 hour to Forest Hill or Glen Park. For an airport run, Glen Park BART (15-20 minute bus ride) is the obvious choice. Looking at the current Muni TT, the headways now might officially get down to 20 minutes at some times of day. When the Germans did visit, it was before BART got to the airport so it was drive over and meet them anyway. To get to where I live now, they'd have to take BART to Richmond, ride about 2 hours on Amtrak, and get picked up (not going to let anybody I know hang around an Amtrak station after dark). Oh yes, and Amtrak doesn't have much in the way of late evening departures heading into the Central Valley. Not something I want to expose a foreign visitor to, and absolutely nothing like German trains (US may not be quite 3rd world, but it's trying hard to get there).

When my daughter did a Europe trip last year, yes, we drove her to SFO and went to pick her up, in the Prius (45-50mpg on the freeway). The cell phone lot works fine (even has a portapotty, more than I can say for San Jose). The return flight was over an hour late - doing transit would have required spending the night in SF due to lack of late evening Amtraks (need to check out Megabus...).