One plus point of this article, is they say why the journey takes so long!<p>I wish Amtrak ran an overnight service to San Jose or Oakland. The San Joaqins train might work: The train portion of the journey, from Bakersfield to the Richmond BART station, is about 5 1/2 hours, or 6 hours to Jack London Square. The problem is a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Union Station to Bakersfield.<p>I think the better option would be the Coast Starlight, which I have taken.
The trip from LA Union Station leaves at 10:10 AM, and is scheduled at San Jose 10 hours 1 minute later.<p>Imagine something like this: A consist of mostly sleeper and business-class cars, with a lounge/cafe and diner car. Your train departs Los Angeles Union station at 8 PM. You either have a late meal on the train, or you ate earlier at Union Station (you have to go to the Traxx restaurant). In the time before bed, you wander around, work on your laptop (there's good cell & wi-fi coverage for the first part of the journey), and chat/network with people in the lounge car.<p>Time passes. The ride quality is fine (at least, it was to me).<p>At 6 AM, your train pulls in to San Jose. Some people get off here, but not all, and the journey isn't over: Instead of terminating, the train moves from Union Pacific to Caltrain right-of-way.<p>Your train departs San Jose after Caltrain 309 (the 6:04 Baby Bullet). After Caltrain 309, the next train isn't until 6:23, so there's room in case your train was delayed overnight.<p>Your train stops at Palo Alto around 6:45, Redwood City around 6:55, and Millbrae around 7:10. The Palo Alto stop lets people turn back south on Caltrain 206 (6:54, Limited) or Caltrain 212 (7:33, making all stops). Redwood City lets people transfer to Caltrain 211 (6:59), which stops at all remaining Caltrain stations on the route. And Millbrae is the BART connection.<p>Your train arrives at 4th & King around 7:30 AM. Downtown LA to Downtown San Francisco, fed, watered, and comfortable, in 11 hours 30 minutes, although you were only awake for like 4 of those hours.<p>I want this now.