Good news from the latest link.
Back - seat driver: Here's your light-rail link to S.F.
By Tony Bizjak - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PST Monday, December 11, 2006
Headed to San Francisco for some Christmas shopping? Planning a spring trip to a Giants game? Or maybe considering flying out of the San Francisco or Oakland airports?
With last week's opening of a Regional Transit light-rail line to the downtown train depot, more Sacramentans may find it convenient enough now to leave the car in the garage and ride the rails to the Bay Area.
You can basically hop a light- rail train in your neighborhood and transfer at the depot to one of the frequent Capitol Corridor trains bound for the Bay Area.
Capitol Corridor trains run between Auburn and San Jose. Stops include Rocklin, Roseville, downtown Sacramento, Davis, Emeryville (with transfers to San Francisco), and Oakland.
It's not particularly hard to take the train. Some even say it's fun. Here are few insider tips:
Timing the trains is pretty easy. Light-rail trains typically run every 15 minutes. (Watch out in Folsom, where they take off every half-hour, and close up shop earlier in the evening than other light-rail lines.)
Light-rail trains stop at the depot just a few feet from the Capitol Corridor platform. Unfortunately, you have to go into the depot to buy a ticket from the machine or the booth.
Better news for people arriving in Sacramento on a Capitol Corridor train and transferring to light rail: The Cap Corridor conductor gives out free transfers if you ask. So, you just step directly onto a light rail at its platform.
The light-rail trains at the downtown depot all run on the "Gold Line" to Sunrise Boulevard in Rancho Cordova. Every other one also continues on to Folsom. Check the destination sign at the front of the train.
If you want to take the light-rail "Blue Line" toward Meadowview, you have to board the Gold Line train and switch at some point downtown. The last switching opportunity before the two lines diverge is at the 16th Street station.
For more on light-rail schedules and start and stop times, you can check the RT Web site: www.sacrt.com/schedules/current/routes.stm
While you're at it, the Capitol Corridor Web site is: www.capitolcorridor.org
