San Diego to Long Beach by train

[jmezmom]

We will be getting off Radiance in San Diego on April 23rd.

 

Thinking about taking the train, Amtrak I assume, up to Long Beach.

 

Is there a station in LB, is it an easy trip or should we look into renting a car?

 

Thanks

[yogi2929]

It seems to me that you are sailing on the Mariner on the 25th of April. The Mariner sails out of San Pedro which is about 7 miles from Long Beach.

Here is some info about Amtrak from Union Station to San Pedro.. this might help..

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1139529

[zephyr17]

Note that if you are going to take the train for a cruise departure on the same day, the Amtrak Thruway bus service between Los Angeles Union Station and San Pedro mentioned in the other thread will not work, since the first departure of the day from Union Station to San Pedro is at 2:50 pm, and arrives in San Pedro too late to catch a cruise. If you would be going the day before, it would work fine.

[Jiffymom]

why not call a shuttle service?

[jmezmom]

It seems to me that you are sailing on the Mariner on the 25th of April. The Mariner sails out of San Pedro which is about 7 miles from Long Beach.

Here is some info about Amtrak from Union Station to San Pedro.. this might help..

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1139529

 

I am sailing on Mariner 2 days after getting off Radiance in San Diego.

 

We want to take the train to Long Beach to visit friends, who will drive us to the port on departure day.

[jmezmom]

Note that if you are going to take the train for a cruise departure on the same day, the Amtrak Thruway bus service between Los Angeles Union Station and San Pedro mentioned in the other thread will not work, since the first departure of the day from Union Station to San Pedro is at 2:50 pm, and arrives in San Pedro too late to catch a cruise. If you would be going the day before, it would work fine.

 

I get off in San Diego on the 23rd and Mariner leaves on the 25th.

 

My original post was asking for info on taking the train from San Diego to Long Beach, not about San Pedro or getting on Mariner.

 

We just wanted info to get from one city to another.

[jmezmom]

why not call a shuttle service?

 

Because we want to take the train.

[zephyr17]

I get off in San Diego on the 23rd and Mariner leaves on the 25th.

 

My original post was asking for info on taking the train from San Diego to Long Beach, not about San Pedro or getting on Mariner.

 

We just wanted info to get from one city to another.

The Thruway bus from Amtrak will be considerably cheaper, too. It is around $5 more per ticket than just a ticket to LA, maybe somewhat less. But Long Beach is not rail-served. You would take the train from San Diego to Los Angeles, then transfer to an Amtrak Thruway bus to get to Long Beach.

 

The same Amtrak Thruway bus to San Pedro also serves Long Beach. There are 2 "stations" in Long Beach, 6th Street & Long Beach Blvd, 601 Long Beach Blvd (Denny's) which is station code LBC, and Queen Mary next to the Catalina Terminal, which is station code LBQ.

 

The same departure times from Los Angeles Union Station apply (2:50pm, 4:30pm, 7:00pm, 10:10pm, and an addtional bus that only goes to Long Beach at 1:05 am). Most of the buses are scheduled to take 55 minutes to get to the Denny's stop, which is the first stop.

 

If you want to do this, you need to purchase tickets from SAN to LBC, not to Los Angeles. Amtrak can't issue a separate ticket solely from Los Angeles to Long Beach, since they are forbidden by state law from issuing tickets only for buses that don't have a rail segment, too. The connections are guaranteed and the buses leave from the north side of Union Station in LA.

[yogi2929]

why not call a shuttle service?

 

I have tried to do a shuttle service from ONT to SAN. They are just not available.

 

The options from SAN to LA are pretty much train or rental car or car service.

[zephyr17]

Also there are 12 trains a day between San Diego and Los Angeles (13 on Friday and Saturday), so you have quite a bit of flexibility, although I think the first 4 each day are too early for that first Long Beach bus at 2:50 pm, and would have too long a layover at LA.

[yogi2929]

I get off in San Diego on the 23rd and Mariner leaves on the 25th.

 

My original post was asking for info on taking the train from San Diego to Long Beach, not about San Pedro or getting on Mariner.

 

We just wanted info to get from one city to another.

 

We all noticed that you are sailing on the RCL Mariner.

We are trying to help. Many people are confused by the LA ports. -- Long Beach (Carnival and rarely HAL) and San Pedro (everybody else).

 

There was no way for us to know that you knew which port the Mariner sails from.

 

Isn't it better to get all the info and discard what you don't want/need, rather than saying "I wish I knew".

[JLC@SD]

Because we want to take the train.

 

Here is amtrak's schedule out of SD. There is a PDF schedule on the link that show the stops along the way and maybe your friends can pick you up at one of the stations short of LA.

 

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer/AM_Route_C/1241245649505/1237405732511