Oakland Int'l - BART to Berkeley
 

Is it easy? Safe at night? How long a trip? I'll be arriving at 10 pm from the East Coast and will be tired....

It is very easy. Take the BART shuttle outside the terminal. Once at BART, you will need exact change for your ticket. The fares are posted, make sure you get on the Richmond train, not the SF train. Neither station is considered a very safe area late at night, so you need to keep your guard up. There will be people around the stations, but I would not advise a long walk at that time of night in Berkeley. Also, BART quits running late at night which could be a problem if your flight is delayed. Better check out www.bart.gov for full info.

It's relatively easy, and lots cheaper than a door-to-door shuttle.<BR><BR>You'll need $2 in exact change for the AirBart shuttle ticket from the airport to the Coliseum BART station. Last time I did it the ticket machine was at the shuttle stop outside the terminal, not in the terminal itself, and I seem to recall it being fussy about what denominations it would take, but I don't recall the details. At the Coliseum station you won't need exact change for a ticket -- there are change machines there or you can get a ticket for more than you need and use it up later (it works like the D.C. Metro farecard, if you know that one.)<BR><BR>At that hour of night, there's a train from Coliseum every 20 minutes and the last one leaves after midnight. It's about 30 miinutes to Berkeley. I don't know which of the two stops in Berkeley you'll need: the one called "Berkeley" is in downtown Berkeley, which is pretty unsalubrious at that hour, but you can usually catch a cab there; the "North Berkeley" stop is in a residential area -- safer but also more deserted.

Forgot to say that Coliseum station, and the trains stopping there, get very crowded after an A's baseball game lets out, so you might want to check the team schedule!

KT, isn't "Ashby" another Berkeley's BART station?

Sorry, Faina is right. I forgot about Ashby. That's in a mixed business-residential area, but a less upscale neighborhood than North Berkeley. I remember a few years ago there was a problem with crime in the (vast) parking lot. I don't know whether that's still the case.