Oakland area info please

Some time in February, I will be arriving at Oakland airport to connect to Amtrak # 6 the following day. In terms of being on time, which is safer, taking the bus to Emeryville or taking Amtrak 724 from the Coliseum station? Also, what options are there for clean inexpensive hotels (if there is such a thing) close to either station?

i'm not sure i get your question about the bus – you have to take a bus either way, the question is what kind of bus.
if you're boarding at the colliseum, then you take the AirBart shuttle to get to the BART station, then you use the pedestrian bridge to cross the street to get to the amtrak stop.
i'm not sure how the bus to emeryville works. are you talking about the amtrak thruway coach?
i think that in terms of being on time, it really doesn't matter that much. the segment between emeryville and oakland should not be subject to freight delays, i think.
ok to be honest i've never taken the train south of richmond, so i don't know much

There is a Four Seasons at 1603 Powell, which is a block from the Emeryville station. There might also be some competitive prices at the hotels near the Jack London Square station, in Oakland.
[Correction: it's the Four Points hotel by Sheraton--I'll send you a PM.]

There are no inexpensive hotels in the Oakland area (excluding flop houses and drug dens). Your best bet is to stay at the airport hotel row or as suggested above in Emeryville. Most of those places have shuttle vans that can pick you up at the airport and take you to the Amtrak station. Sometimes you can get decent price breaks if you call the hotel directly (not their 800 numbers). Several years ago, I stayed at a Hilton ? at Fisherman's Wharf in SF for $50/nite, on an offseason weekend.

I don't know how far you're going on the CZ, but by the time it arrives here in Denver, it's routinely 6, sometimes 8 hours late coming off the UP.

Alloy wrote:There is a Four Seasons at 1603 Powell, which is a block from the Emeryville station. There might also be some competitive prices at the hotels near the Jack London Square station, in Oakland.
[Correction: it's the Four Points hotel by Sheraton--I'll send you a PM.]

The Four Points By Sheraton at 1603 Powell was where we stayed at back September. I paid $99 per night. We could afford to stay over in SF. The only thing was that we had to make sure that we caught the last Bart train to Richmond, get off at MacArthur and then caught a cab back to the hotel which was $8.

russp wrote:There are no inexpensive hotels in the Oakland area (excluding flop houses and drug dens). Your best bet is to stay at the airport hotel row or as suggested above in Emeryville. Most of those places have shuttle vans that can pick you up at the airport and take you to the Amtrak station. Sometimes you can get decent price breaks if you call the hotel directly (not their 800 numbers). Several years ago, I stayed at a Hilton ? at Fisherman's Wharf in SF for $50/nite, on an offseason weekend.

I don't know how far you're going on the CZ, but by the time it arrives here in Denver, it's routinely 6, sometimes 8 hours late coming off the UP.

The Hilton At Fisherman's Wharf for $50 a night? That must've been a long time ago.