Bus from San Francisco to Stanford? (Daly City, Richmond: home, transfer to, neighborhoods)

[callmekates]

I am looking to move to San Francisco (probably to the Sunset or Richmond district). I work at Stanford University. Does anyone know of a bus that goes from around this area to Stanford? Something that goes on 280 perhaps?

Thank you!

[Joelle_SF]

You're looking at a two-hour commute, consisting of a bus to the BART station in Daly City, then picking up the Caltrain in Millbrae to get to Palo Alto, then a Marguerite shuttle to campus.
You may want to rethink your place of residence.

[ilkhd2]

45 min BART to fremont, + 1 hour bus from BART. Doable but very stressful.

[gone down south]

Bike to Caltrain might be your best bet.

[ketch89]

Get yourself the absolute best vehicle for traversing San Francisco: a scooter 150cc or smaller. With a scooter, you can park right next to the 4th street Caltrain station after a 15-20 minute ride there, then it's 40 minutes on the baby bullet to get to Palo Alto. Including the Marguerite shuttle ride, the whole trip would probably take about 1:25.

[davdaven]

No, there is not a bus from SF to Stanford. There are private shuttle operators that run from that side of town to corporate campuses for Google, etc. but that's it.

You will have to (1) get from home to the Caltrain station, (2) take Caltrain to Palo Alto, and (3) transfer to the free Marguerite Shuttle to reach the Stanford campus. This will take about 1:45 each way if you use Muni for the first step. You can shave a good 20 minutes off the commute by skipping Muni, but that requires using a scooter or motorcycle to get across town. A bicycle will be about as fast as Muni, but that's a long commute in inclement weather.

If you are set on moving to San Francisco, I strongly recommend moving to a neighborhood closer to Caltrain. Alternatively, look into neighborhoods with good BART access. You can take BART to Millbrae and transfer to Caltrain there. That would be a rather expensive commute, but BART is more tolerable and reliable than Muni.

[cardinal2007]

When I was at Stanford people I talked to suggested just living in Potrero Hill, that way you can just bike to the Caltrain at 22nd St, and either bike to campus or take the Margueritte, if you catch the Baby Bullet then it is a short train ride to PA. Btw when I was there they started the Palm Dr Express which while not leaving me as close to where I wanted, still was convenient if you work near enough to the main Quad, as it just goes straight down Palm Dr, and loops back to Caltrain, hopefully that is still around.

[sonarrat]

Until recently, there was a bus directly to Stanford run by Samtrans, the KX express. They shortened the route and in January they are shortening it again; now it will only run between Redwood City and San Bruno, with service to/from SF only during peak hours. But even those buses were completely on the other side of the city from where you are.

The public transit-only route would be 19th Ave bus to Daly City BART, take BART to Millbrae, take the bullet Caltrain to Palo Alto, and take the shuttle to campus. I would just get a car and drive there via 280/Sand Hill. Parking and driving in the Sunset is not as problematic as many parts of the city.