Great station clean and well maintained. The agents are nice. Bus schedules are reliable.read more

This is the main Bart station that I use, I'm much closer to this one than Bayfair Bart…read more I no longer park my car in the parking lot here, ever since it got broken into once. There is zero security in the parking lot. Now, I catch the bus or Uber here, depending on if I'm in a hurry. I do like the Clipper Card only, which has been in effect for a while. They also upgraded the Bart fare gates, so the fare jumpers can't just jump over like they used too. The prices are still reasonable, way better, and quicker, than driving!!

The best BART station I've visited. I used to take BART to commute to work years ago. This was our…read morefirst time to the Orinda station. We used the GPS to get here to the North parking lot and ended up parking in the overflow lot with a select amount of other people so we weren't alone. We were unaware it was the overflow lot till we walked to the BART station taking the little path and saw closer parking spaces. Oh well we were already parked and the walk wasn't that far. There is a parking FEE from 4am-3pm Monday - Friday. You need to remember your stall number so you can pay for your parking spot inside the station. When we arrived at the station we didn't see the pay station so we asked the station manager and she informed us it was free. If you need to pay you have to pay your fair and inside the station is the machines to pay your parking. It's only $3.40 a day. Not bad if you're comparing it to street metered parking or a parking garage. Still I'm not used to paying for parking at a BART Station. When we arrived at the BART station we looked at the machines and didn't see a way to put money on our BART tickets so we went to the station manage and asked how we do this. She informed us that they no longer use the old school paper tickets and now the new form of payment is a clipper card or a credit card. She said we could mail in our tickets and we'll get a check for the remaining balance. We asked where we ship them to and she said we can do it in station. We then asked if we can do it in this station and she said no she was out of the forms, then she looked and it turns out she still had a booklet of the forms so we were able to turn them tickets into her. She filled out a form for us. We signed our name to the bottom of the form after showing her our ID and she said it should only take 2 weeks and if we don't get the check in the mail by then to call them. Good thing we arrived early. We were able to enter the BART station by using our credit card. It worked like a charm. You just use a credit card to enter and the same one to exist and it automatically charges your card. It costed us $5.95 to travel from the Orinda BART Station to the Montgomery Station. That is the cost each way using a credit card. If you purchase a plastic Clipper card there is a $3 charge. If you load the Clipper app to your phone there is no charge to use your Clipper App. I'm not sure of the advantage of using the Clipper card versus using a credit card. Bathroom. They actually have 2 unisex bathrooms that have that great red and green tab on the door so you know if it's occupied or not. They don't have roll toilet paper, but the old school little square sheets that dispense like hand towels do. We were shocked in a good way at how clean and fresh smelling the bathrooms are. And I was just shocked that they have bathrooms that we were allowed to use. My husband was shocked that you didn't have to get an agent to open it for you. So overall we were thrilled beyond belief about the bathroom situation. We used it before and after the trip and it was just as clean if not cleaner at the end of the day. Safety. The station seems safe. There was no one loitering around the station. No homeless people camped out, ect. The station and the parking lot were relatively clean. There was a six pack of used or half used Corona in the parking lot next to a tree, but other than that it was pretty clean. Our car was safe. No damage happened to our car. There is always a fear that your car may be vandalized while you are gone or it 's broken into and all your stuff is stolen. It's happened before to my Husband and his friends at another Bart Station and that's why we didn't park at that station.

i had to go to SF, but i'm going to school by Bart in this rain. my boy dropped me off at the…read morestation, which has large parking lot!

Let me start by saying that earlier this evening (11 pm on Wednesday) my daughter and I rode BART…read morefor the first time. We drove our car to a concert in Oakland, but on the way home we got a flat tire. luckily, we pulled off on an exit near this station. The gentleman working at the booth was our guardian angel. Not only did he explain everything clearly and patiently, he genuinely cared and went above and beyond to help us. I nearly cried because he was like a knight in shining armor, he was an ally in a difficult situation. I literally created a yelp account just to acknowledge this amazing man and the excellent quality of our late-night BART experience overall (everyone was helpful, the trains were clean and prompt). Once we got home, my teenage daughter told me , and I quote without exaggeration, that "this experience renewed my faith in humanity". From now on, I plan to travel this way more regularly. Thank you so much to all of the BART employees (especially the gentleman in the booth in W. Oakland).

If your gluten free maybe don't come here. This isn't for the faint of heart…read more Public transportation isn't a luxury experience. Its if you want the most practical way into the city where parking is difficult. I use this transfer station once in a while. If you have a victim mindset just avoid it - I think kriminals can sniff out fear and target that sort of thing. Maybe its even a sort of self fulfilling prophecy sort of thing. Expect the worst out of people get the worst. I'm not sure though. For all the German tourists that send their 18 year old daughters here - its not a smart thing to do. Unless your really hurting for cash give them finances to avoid public transportation - especially after hours.

Convenient station if you're commuting through here. Very busy station during regular commute…read morehours, so it's a popular station. Mostly working professionals and visitors seem to be the crowd here during the heavy traffic hours. You can visit the shopping district that's downstairs, with lots of different things you can check out. Station is clean and there's also parking available for any direction you're traveling to or from. As this station is still part of the Oakland corridor, though a well-traveled location, would still recommend to stay aware of surroundings.

I live in Oakland and this Bart station is my go to versus others in the area. Great restaurants…read moreand stores to go to that are nearby as well as free parking here on Saturdays and Sundays which is always a plus in the Bay Area.

How do you rate a BART station? Like this:…read more Accessibility: 4/5 Cleanliness: 2.5/5 Customer Service: Lol! Restrooms: Is this even a category?! It's the same at every BART station (as in, less than cleanly and probably an environment best suited to enter when you're fully masked and engulfed in full hazmat gear), so I don't think I should even bother weighing in here... That's a bit unfair, frankly. The Pleasant Hill/Contra Costa Centre BART station benefits mostly from its easily accessible location and the fact that it sits squarely between the Dub Creek and Concord, making it just a bit closer to a lot of restaurants, shops, and residences. Overall, it's just another train station, but it does offer a lot more options to folks nearby.

I love Bart because of how easy it is to ride to sf. Free parking after 10am. Lots of parking as…read morethey have a dedicated garage

The train station is a short walk to the restaurants & shops!…read moreSan Mateo has parklets with many places to relax, have a cold beverage or eat outside!

Very impressed with Caltrain. I had a hiccup purchasing my ticket via mobile app. Mostly user…read moreerror, as I wasn't aware I could not purchase tickets in advanced as they expire. It's not like BART where you could add money. I took my bike on the train to work for the first time to participate with the annual "Bike To Work Day" presented by Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition. I think it would help you if you watch YouTube videos at Caltrain website to give you more details of the dos and don'ts. Of course I didn't, so there are rules that I learned during my ride. For example, make sure to get a yellow tag for your bike and mark your destination. For example, "San Mateo to Mountain View." This will help other riders placed their bikes with the same destination next to yours. Also, look for train cars with a bike icon, and know ahead which train # stops at your final destination. Overall, my experience was fantastic. Customer service on the phone and email was also excellent. Cheers!

One of my favorite experiences as a new East Bay resident has been Casual Carpool. How amazing is…read moreit that supply and demand meet organically at designated spots like this one every morning? It's a much more civilized way to get across the Bay than BART and it's free. I offered $1 at first but drivers seemed surprised and I haven't seen any of my co-riders from this location ever offer. What's really cool about this location is that the Transbay E Bus is located directly across the street. What I usually do is try to get there just before a scheduled bus departure so I can evaluate which option to go with based on the Casual Carpool line. I'm still a UC Berkeley student and AC Transit is currently complimentary so this bus/Casual Carpool system works for me. Once I no longer get free bus rides, I'll probably wait it out at Casual Carpool no matter what. The longest I've had to wait is 15 minutes and as lines get longer, riders and drivers usually allow 3 people to get in the car in order to speed up the line.

It's a great way to get across the bay, and its free. The people are nice, and you are not…read moreunderground like bart.

I love casual carpooling. If you tell anyone about it - especially out of the Bay Area they think…read moreyou are crazy for picking up 2 random strangers. It's a complete value exchange for all parties and everyone really benefits (I save time + toll and they get a free ride into the city.) Drop off point in the city is the first exit - Fremont and you'll see a bunch of cars dropping their casual carpoolers off too. I started a new job by the ATT Ball park and tried taking public transportation there and it was taking over an hour as I had to do Bart + MUNI or Ferry + MUNI as the walk was a tad far from both of those. What I've learned so far as the driver: - You'll see a line of people waiting to be picked up by the Alameda fire station on Encinal and Park right across from the KFC/park - The sweet spot of picking people up is 7-8am. I personally try to get there between 7:50-8:10am and the one time I came around 8:20am it was too late! No one was there and I had to go into the city by myself.. literally took double the time so lesson learned - With casual carpool average time with getting into the city is around 30 minutes - There are etiquette rules on the website but most of it is just common sense.. respect the car+drive and each other - I have NPR on as neutral thing to listen to on the radio - There is no small talk - most people get into the car and use their phones or fall asleep (totally fine by me - I rarely have seen the same folks multiple times and we don't need to know what each other's name is and what they do) - When there's a long line I tend to pick up 3 people since I have space in my car - The website mentions that sometimes people will offer a few dollars to pitch in with gas or the toll (discounted at $3.00 vs $6.00) but no one has ever offered and its fine but in case you were expecting it.. Since I'm the driver I don't have to worry about how to get back from the city like the people that hitch a ride but from my understanding people will BART, AC Transit, Ferry, etc. There is no casual carpool on the way back to Alameda but I believe there may be in other East Bay cities - something to check out on the website. Carpool isn't a huge advantage on the way back as not all entrances from the city has a carpool entry.