Overall, I love the Amtrak San Joaquin. My main complaint is actually that I wish there was more of…read moreit.
According to Amtrak's website, the San Joaquin runs "between the San Francisco Bay Area (or Sacramento) and Bakersfield." I just wish the actual San Joaquin train ran all the way to Sacramento more than once per day.
As of right now, for example, if I wanted to take the train to Bakersfield next Saturday, the only direct service 702 train leaves at 6:26am, about two hours before the first light rail arrives to Sacramento Valley Station from Folsom.
After 6:26am, the only options are mixed service, meaning that one has to take a bus from Sacramento to the train in Stockton, even though the train does, theoretically, run directly from Sacramento to Bakersfield.
In my opinion, it seems a lot harder to avoid airborne diseases on the bus, since people are more crammed together. You also don't have the option of walking to a different car or a different level to get away from a particularly unruly passenger, like you usually can on the train.
A few weeks ago, a man who had just been let out of jail in Sacramento was being forced to either stay on the bus to Lodi, or go back to jail in Sacramento. He was rather upset about this, so our bus driver turned around to take him back to the station.
At the station, a security guard from the jail boarded the bus and yelled at the man, "No! You're staying! No more games, do you understand!" So all the way to Stockton, I'm sitting like, two feet away from this guy, afraid he's going to do something desperate. So that was fun.
Would have been nice if I could have walked to the cafe car to get a snack, or even just to a different car where I could avoid this scene. Not to mention the scheduling concerns that are created by a bus arriving late for any reason.
Generally speaking, the train does not wait, but the buses sometimes do.
On the way back, for the first time ever, I ended up on an older, single-level train. In lieu of a cafe car, Amtrak was giving out free snack boxes. As much as I love the cafe car, I think I love free snacks even more, so I was cool with it.
Aside from wishing there was more direct service between Sacramento and Bakersfield, I also wish that there were more options for window-facing seating in coach. Currently, this only seems to exist in the cafe car, but if I could, I would probably sit facing the window for the whole trip.
Overall, though, the ride is smooth, and the views are spectacular. I especially love seeing the miles and miles of almond blooms through the central valley in early Spring, and the snow-capped Sierras (from a distance) in winter.
I just wish there were more options to take the train straight through from Sacramento to Bakersfield.