How to get between San Francisco and Los Angeles without a car nor involving air travel

The proposed CAHSR

 Double Decked Megabus

 Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Train in Union Station

Greyhound Express bus




For most of us the most common choices to get between these two major California cities or metropolitan areas is to fly or drive. Though with airline travel getting very unpleasant and riddled with delays nowadays and other issues and the roads been unbearably congested people look for other means. Unfortuntetely nowadays there are few pleasant and quick alternatives to these two methods. California High speed rail is still a long ways off from being constructed. It would be at least 2025 before it is completed and running. That is if its ever completed due to the bureaucracy. On the flip China has already completed 6012 miles of high speed rail lines as of 2012. Both California and China started planning for HSR during the 1990s though California as of 2012 still have not a single mile of HSR built.

While the news might be filled with doom and gloom for CAHSR there are still options to get from north to South California available currently without driving or setting foot inside an airport. For those living in San Francisco or in the east bay such as in Oakland or Martinez. There are few ways of getting down south. For rail travel one can board Amtrak San Joaquin(Which starts from Emeryville(Oakland) runs through Martinez, Antioch, and Stockton) and ride to Bakersfield where they would be directed to transfer to an amtrak bus through the grapevine and to Los Angeles Union Station. The trip would usually take about 7 hours and fifty minutes if all ran on time. There is also the coast starlight which actually runs from Seattle to Los Angeles however this train would take more than twelve hours to complete its journey which can be riddled with delays as it follows the windy coastal tracks and shares tracks with heavy freight train traffic. Or for a shorter time alternative with shoreline scenic trains one can ride a combination of Amtrak bus and train service between San Luis Obispo or Santa Barbara and transfer to Amtrak Pacific Surfliner trains which the trip takes about 8 1/2 to 9/1/2 hours.

In addition to Amtrak there are also buses such as Greyhound though this is not a very pleasant way to travel as Greyhound often has many bad reputations and often stop in most blighted parts of cities such as Central City East in Los Angeles. For information for those who like to take Greyhound from San Francisco and the east bay area there are buses running from Oakland to Los Angeles the fastest schedule is 7 hours and five minutes departing Oakland 10:35 am and arriving Los Angeles at 5:40pm, there are other runs throughout the day however those bus trips might take up to two hours longer depending on schedule. Greyhound also recently brought up Greyhound express which uses a yield management fare structure similar to the newer start ups of Megabus and Boltbus. Greyhound Express is advertised to have the newest buses in the Greyhound fleet said to be equipped with electric outlets, wifi, and leather seats which should be cleaner than cloth seats. In my experience while Greyhound may not show movies they have the best Internet wifi access of all the lines I experienced. 

While Greyhound might not be most people's cup of tea there are also a number of private buses that runs the route between San Francisco Bay Area and South California. These are generally much cleaner than greyhound and avoids the blighted areas and often travels with the least amounts of stops therefore shortening the time spent on the road. Private chartered bus companies names include Cashuttlebus which runs buses between San Francisco/San Jose and Los Angeles area which includes W Hollywood hostel and Santa Monica, USAsia(A chinatown bus company that travels from Oakland and San Francisco Chinatowns to San Gabriel), xedohoang(A vietnamese bus company) also known as low fare bus, Green tortious(this is usually an adventure travel company but provides buses that that solely travel between San Francisco and Los Angeles).

The websites for these bus companies are www.cashuttlebus.com, xedohoang(Vietnamese bus) is www.lowfarebus.com, USAsia bus is www.usasiatour.com, Greyhound is obviously Greyhound.com, and Megabus is Megabus.com

Rates for Greyhound, BoltBus, Megabus, and CA shuttle bus are based on reservation system and may vary due to time of booking as well as passenger loads, rates for XeDoHoang(Vietnamese bus) and USAsia(Chinatown bus) are fixed.


Departure/arrival points, 
Commercial long distance bus lines
Boltbus - owned by Greyhound. 
Multiple departure times a  day please checkout Boltbus.com
Prices depends on demand and time of reservation.
San Francisco 200 Folsom Greyhound Slip 1
Oakland- West Oakland BART station
San Jose- Diridon Train Station
Los Angeles- Union train Station

Greyhound
Oakland-

2103 San Pablo Avenue

Oakland, CA 94612

(510) 832-4730

San Francisco-

200 Folsom Street San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 495-1569

San Jose-
70 S Almaden Ave, San Jose, CA ‎
There are multiple departure times throughout the day though it is recommended that travelers from Bay Area to LA only ride the Express buses. Prices may vary by demand and usually goes up when it gets close to time of departure.

(408) 295-4151 ‎ · greyhound.com

email: sales@cashuttlebus.com
phone: 4082941798
San Francisco Bay Area
HILTON SAN FRANCISCO (NEAR UNION SQUARE)
Mason Street between O’Farrell Street and Ellis Street  

11:45AM departure toward LA 7:30PM arrival from LA Powell Street pickup Carl’s Jr. at 25 Cyril Magnin Street, adjacent to City Café. 12:00pm departure toward LA 7:45pm arrival from LA The San Jose Caltrain Station  65 Cahill St., San Jose, CA 95110 south of HP Pavillion and Santa Clara Street. 1:15pm departure toward LA 6:45 arrival from LA Los Angeles Area USA Hostels 1624 Schrader Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028 Right in front of USA Hostel entrance North Hollywood  adjacent to North Hollywood station where red line subway and Orange Line rapid busway meets. Located across from Enterprise Rent-A Car at 5401 Lankershim Blvd.  7:00 pm arrival 12:45pm Departure toward SF Bay Area 7:00pm Santa Monica Hostels International 1436 2nd St. Santa Monica, CA 90401. front entrance 8:30pm arrival from SF Bay Area 11:30AM Depart for SF Bay Area Union Station  Denny's Restaurant directly across from Union station. east entrance where the transit bus loop is.  530 Ramirez St Los Angeles, 90012  7:45PM arrival time 12:00PM departure for SF Bay Area Departures daily EXCEPT TUES AND SAT

Megabus
Multiple departures daily
please check Megabus.com
San Francisco Caltrain 4th and king streets
San Jose Diridon Station
Burbank/North Hollywood Metrolink station,
Los Angeles Union Station
Asian Charter bus lines
USAsiatour
Website www.usasiatour.com/usasiatour/SF~LA_ENG.html
Daily departures all seven days of the week
San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Chinatown
Bank of America 944 Stockton st. and Washington St.
Southbound Departure: 9:00 AM Northbound arrival: 6:30pm

Oakland Chinatown  Corner of Franklin St & 9th street. 
Southbound Departure: 9:30 am Northbound arrival: 6:00pm
Cupertino Fatima Restaurant 10125 Bandley Dr. & Stevens Creek Blvd. near Marina Supermarket 
Southbound departure: 10:30am Northbound arrival: 4:50pm
San Jose Maxim Market (945 Mclaughlin Ave)
Southbound departure: 10:45am Northbound arrival: 4:40pm

Southern California/Greater Los Angeles area/ San Gabriel Valley
San Gabriel On Valley blvd Between New Ave and Prospect Ave
Southbound Arrival: 5:30pm Northbound Departure: 10:00am

Ticket prices: Adult one way:$55 Round trip(within 30 days) $100
Child(2-9) and elder (older than 65) subtract $5 from the adult rates.

On this blog site I would just point out the transportation options I would review my experience on these bus companies on another blogger site.

Xe Do Hoang
Daily departures 7 days a week with increased departure times on Friday and Sundays
Vietnamese Lees Sandwiches served on bus, no lunch break only a short 15 minute rest break
North California to South California
6:30AM McDonald, San Francisco 600 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco, CA 6:00AM
7:00am Ba Le's Sandwiches, Oakland
1909 International Ave, Oakland
7:30AM Huong Lan Sandwich, Sacramento independent Van.
8:30AM Lees Sandwich, San Jose
2525 King Rd, San Jose
Approximate Arrival times
2:00 pmChinatown, Metro station
1231 North Spring Street, Los Angeles
2:15PM Thuan Phat Supermarket, El Monte
2650 N Rosemead Blvd, El Monte
3:00PM ABC Supermarket, Westminster
8970 Bolsa Ave, Westminster, CA
(Connecting van)
5:00PM (Separate Van) arrives in Lucky Seafood, San Diego,
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego
South California to North California
Departure times
7:00AM Lucky Seafood, San Francisco
9326 Mira Mesa Blvd, San Diego
9:45AM ABC Supermarket, Westminster
8970 Bolsa Ave, Westminster
10:30AM Thuan Phat Supermarket, El Monte
2650 N Rosemead Blvd, El Monte
10:55AM Chinatown, Metro Station
1231 North Spring street, Los Angeles
Arriving At:
4:15 PM Lee Sandwich, San Jose
2525 King Rd, San Jose
5:45PM Ba Le's Sandwiches, Oakland
1909 International Ave, Oakland
6:00PM McDonald, San Francisco
600 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco
6:30pm Huong Lan Sandwich, Sacramento
6930 65 Street, Sacramento
Additional afternoon departure times for Friday and Sundays
Trips to South California
Departure times
5:00PM Lee Sandwich, San Jose
2525 King Rd, San Jose
Approximate arrival times
11:00PM Thuan Phat Supermarket, El Monte
11:30PM ABC Supermarket Westminster
Trips to North California
4:00PM ABC Supermarket
4:30PM Thuan Phat Supermarket
11PM Lee Sandwich, San Jose
PLEASE NOTE:
All information are based on web information as off May 2014 information may vary, departure times and arrival times might vary due to unforeseen conditions or due to company mishaps.
Also if one chooses to use the Asian bus lines beware of language barrier issues as personnel speak very limited English. Please regard this for information only and do a reality check with the companies before traveling.