Re: William travels from Vancouver to Tijuana on public transit - segment 2
Author: FUD
Date: 07-30-2024 - 20:26
Obviously has never used Amtrak in California. Yes, tickets should be bought ahead, but "ahead" can often be same-day or day-before with little or no penalty. Cap Corridor trains (about 12 a day between Sacramento & Oakland, so not every 15 minutes but many public transit (bus) lines aren't either) are fully unreserved; buy a ticket (machines at many stations) and go. San Joaquins do require reservations but day-ahead is usually fine. Not sure about Surfliner; at one time they had unreserved coach and reserved business class.
Long-distance Amtrak does require advance (*way* advance in many cases) ticketing, especially if use of 1st class is planned. The trains are not all 1st class, and coach gets used for a lot of rural basic transportation.
If you read the guy's story, you'll understand that rural public transportation NEVER makes money. It's just impossible. Amtrak's no different. Amtrak's reservation system, like any airline's, tries to (and usually succeeds) in maximizing returns anyway, and long distance overall doesn't lose as much (though still substantial) as Amtrak's cooked books say it does. Still, in a place like California, the long-distance trains are a drop in the passenger traffic bucket; the rest runs pretty much like a transit business with a little subsidy for the public service.
That said, yes, I understand that the the guy is trying to use *public transit* which logically extends, at most, to commuter trains. A similar thing was done some years ago by another guy who took public transit (deliberately, only buses) from SF to LA; took 2 days, even with Amtrak (Surfliner) for the last stretch south of Santa Barbara. Would have been interesting to see a story that includes "taking Amtrak" (bus-train-bus-train, possibly bus-train-bus if the night bus from Bakersfield were used) from Arcata or Redding to San Diego, ending with a trolley ride to the border.