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I'm trying to go from Riverside California up to the Topos Institute in Berkeley for a week, to talk to @epatters about his collaborative web-based modeling software using double categories.
It should be great, but here's the catch: I want to take a train, to reduce carbon emissions a bit.
To go the whole way by train I could:
• leave at 6:40 am and walk from my house to Hunter Park Station in 50 minutes
• take a train from Hunter Park leaving at 7:40 am and arriving at LA Union Station at 9:20 am
• take a train from LA Union station leaving at 9:50 am and arriving in Oakland at 9:06 pm
• walk from the train station to a bus station in 10 minutes
• take a bus leaving 9:27 pm and arriving in Berkeley at 10:03 pm.
• walk to a hotel
The good part: the train ride up the Pacific Coast is beautiful. Some people go all the way up to Seattle! The bad part: it starts brutally early. The really bad part: there's only 30 minutes to make the connection in LA, I've never done it before, and there's not another train that day.
Another plan: I need to visit my aunt near Santa Barbara. I can drive there in 3.5 hours, spend a a few days there, then drive to the train station. I hear they have long-term parking. I leave the car there, then:
• take a train from Santa Barbara leaving at 12:21 and arriving in Oakland at 9:06 pm
• walk from the train station to a bus station in 10 minutes
• take a bus leaving 9:27 pm and arriving in Berkeley at 10:03 pm.
• walk to a hotel
So, the same thing but starting later and avoiding the tight connection! A lot of driving, and if there's no long-term parking available the plan collapses.
Any good ideas? (Yeah, I could just not go.)
Okay, I'm doing it! 
I'll drive from Riverside to Santa Barbara, spend two days there, then drive to the train station. After confusing information from Amtrak and other sources I got GREAT information by calling the Santa Barbara downtown parking office:
They have long-term parking and it's hardly ever full. If it's full I can park in the short-term parking lot at no extra charge if I tell the attendant. If the whole lot is full I can park in the nearby lot 12 or any other city lot. That covers even my most paranoid scenarios. I just need to validate my parking ticket at the station!
I'll leave the car there, and then:
• take a train from Santa Barbara leaving at 12:21 and arriving in Emeryville at 9:31 pm
• Brendan Fong will drive me to my hotel
Then I'll spend a week in Berkeley talking to category theorists and maybe other mathematicians and random fun folks!
@johncarlosbaez @epatters My son does this trip starting in the Bay Area,, but usually stops in Ventura to see his mom and I. And then continues to Riverside. It is surprisingly difficult!
@johncarlosbaez 30min connection doesn’t sound that bad, but of course, what do punctuality statistics tell you? Are there such available? Do trains in the US wait for connecting trains?
@flq @johncarlosbaez Was about to tell you how things work in Germany these days, but I don’t need to! 
Let’s just says that these days I would calculate at least an hour for train connections. And I try to avoid connecting trains at much as possible.
But I DO love taking the train as much as possible. Used to go from Hannover to Aarhus regularly for work. ICE to Hamburg than a slow stop train to Aarhus. Once or twice it got really close even with an hour for changing trains.
@flq @johncarlosbaez And I did the maths, flying would be around the same time but I would then still be 45mins out of Aarhus, instead of at the station right in the centre, 10 mins walk from my hotel. And flying from Hannover is either via Amsterdam or Warsaw, then to Copenhagen, then to Aarhus.
@flq @johncarlosbaez The first train would be run by Metrolink, LA's commuter rail, so the long-distance Amtrak train wouldn't wait for it.
I don't have punctuality statistics on hand, but it borrows its track from one of the busiest stretches of container freight in North America, so I'm not optimistic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5UqcxkIKMY
@epatters @johncarlosbaez Would a coach rather than train be sufficiently lower-CO2-than-flying? If I ask Google Maps to plan me something it routes me onto a Flixbus to San Jose.
(Scenic coastal train ride though, 
)
@johncarlosbaez @epatters If stopping "near" SB is an option, the best thing would be to take Metrolink - Surfliner there, as the Surfliner schedule is ok, even on the less-used northern half. Of course, this assumes that you can get from SB train station (or Oxnard if that's actually closer) to your aunt and back without driving there yourself.
@johncarlosbaez Weirdly enough, the fastest way to do this is to go through Bakersfield (there's the San Joaquin train from Bakersfield to Emeryville). It's not as scenic as the coast starlight, but it's about 4 hours faster, including the bus from LA to Bakersfield. But if you are starting from Riverside rather than LA, maybe the easiest way to do this would just be to drive to Bakersfield and park there (3 hours), and then take the train from Bakersfield to Emeryville (6 hours).
@olynch Actually, it looks like Amtrak will provide connecting busses all the way from Riverside - this is definitely the Amtrak-recommended way to get there, and probably how I'd choose to do the southbound trip, as the northbound has the scenic surfliner part during daylight.
Nothing to add to the route planning, but the Shattuck is a nice historic hotel that’s centrally located once you’re in Berkeley.
If you haven’t been to the Exploratorium in San Francisco, that is also worth a visit. You might be a good candidate for an Osher Fellowship, if you’re interested in spending a week or more collaborating with their staff on exhibits and programming.
@jsdodge @johncarlosbaez If you’d like to stay on campus, I could arrange booking at one of the faculty clubs (assuming there’s space).
@johncarlosbaez @epatters Rent an electric car? Driving up the 101 from SB is nice. Highway 1 is still closed in Big Sur I think.
@johncarlosbaez we'll be riding a night train to Memphis during the spring break - one of not too many such options from Chicago...