Public Transportation in the Bay Area
 The Bay Area has an extensive network of public transportation including commuter trains, "Baby Bullet" trains, subway, light rail, buses, and ferries. The good news is that they are generally all tied together in one area, and there is one central website to use to plan your trip. You can visit the 511 Transit website for all the latest public transportation information including schedules, maps and fares.
Hotel and Area Shuttles
The Crowne Plaza hotel operates free shuttle busses from San Francisco International Airport to the hotel. Passengers can board on any of the shuttle bus islands on the arrival level. Hotel guests can also take the shuttle to the airport and transfer to BART using the airport connection to the Millbrae BART/CalTrain Intermodal Transit The Peninsula Traffic Congestion Relief Alliance (PTCRA) provides business funded free shuttle busses during weekdays. Commute hour shuttles run to Millbrae Station. Mid-day shuttles circle Foster City and carry passengers to the Hillsdale Mall and Hillsdale Caltrain station.
Try Public Transit Free!
If you are coming to the Symposium and live or work in San Mateo County you may be elegible for free public transportation tickets provided by PTCRA. Please visit the PTCRA website for additional information on the Free Transit Ticket Distribution Program.
Ride Sharing
AMSAT and Project OSCAR would like to encourage everyone to use public transportation or share a ride with other Symposium attendees. Visit the Symposium Rideshare Matching page to offer or ask for matching with someone who may arrive by car.
Overall Transportation Summary
Here is a summary of how most will get you around the west side of the bay and into the west side of the bay from the east bay.
| Provider |
Type |
Coverage |
Nominal Hours |
Connects To |
| PTCRA |
Free Shuttle Busses |
Foster City, San Mateo and Millbrae |
6:30am-7:00pm |
BART, CalTrain, samTrans |
| CalTrain |
Commuter Rail & Bullet |
San Francisco to San Jose, some to Gilroy |
4:30am - 1am |
BART, VTA, Muni |
| samTrans |
Bus |
San Francisco to Palo Alto and Coast to Bay |
5am - 2am |
CalTrain, BART, Via, Muni |
BART
|
Rapid Transit |
Mostly East Bay Transbay to SFO |
4am - 1:30am |
All except VTA |
| Muni |
Light Rail, Subway, Bus |
San Francisco |
4:30am - 2am |
All except VTA |
| VTA |
Light Rail, Bus |
Santa Clara County |
5am - midnight |
CalTrain, Sam Trans |
| AC Transit |
Bus |
East Bay and Transbay to San Francisco |
5am - 1am |
BART, AMTRAK, CalTrain |
| Golden Gate Transit |
Bus, Ferry |
North Bay to San Francisco |
5am - 1am |
BART, CalTrain, Muni |
| ACE |
Commuter Rail, Bus |
San Jose to Stockton |
4:20am - 6:40am
3:30pm - 5:30pm |
CalTrain, BART, AMTRAK |
These are only the major systems. There are additional trans-bay providers and other shuttles. For a comprehensive list of public transit systems please consult the bay area 511 Transit system website, which is the definitive list of transit systems.
Repeater System "Talk-In"
Whether you are using public transportation, rideshare or driving in, we have arranged to use the N6MPX repeater system courtesy of the Mad Scientists Amateur Radio Club. There are two linked repeaters that can be reached using a handheld transceiver from most Bay Area locations. One is located in San Mateo on 2M that will cover most of the bay into Marin County and east to Livermore. The other located in San José on 70cm will cover most of the south bay into the Almaden Valley. These repeaters use a PL of 100Hz with positive offsets. The base frequencies for these repeaters are 147.300 MHz and 441.950 MHz respectively. We will have someone monitor these frequencies on Friday and Saturday to provide talk in services and help facilitate airport pickups for those who may not have cellphone service. There will also be knowledgeable people monitoring the 145.230 (- offset) and 147.210 (+ offset) repeaters. Again, both use PL tones of 100 Hz.
We are also looking into a 1296 MHz repeater frequency - please check back for additional frequencies.
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