Amtrak

The amtrak station in Martinez is a fairly new station. It gets approximately 42 trains as day between freight, amtrak and caltrain.
There is a good size lot to leave your car, but make sure you get a permit from the ticket agent.
Inside th station there is a coffee/​snack shop that sells danishes, sandwiches, soda water an f candy.
To use the restroom you need to get a token from the ticket agent.
The benches inside remind me of pews in church, you really do not want to sit in them to long or your rear goes numb.
Overall, it is a good clean station

Amtrak is a public entity, this is why they don’t care about customer service or the type of employees they hire. Customer Service at its worse when you have issues with their employees harassing you as suspecting you are on the train for free and follows you! I complained and never was heard, one employee with the name of Mr. Canon from the Martinez, CA to Reno, NV simply should be fired.

I visit this station about once a month to take the train up to Dunsmuir, CA. the station is really clean and also a safe environment.
my coast starlight train was 3+ hours late in September because a car was stuck on the tracks. although the wait got really annoying, I felt safe at the Martinez location. Amtrak is a great way to travel, but has a reputation for never being on time. the first time I went to this station (my first time on Amtrak) the workers were so helpful and nice, and answered all the questions I had.
as for Amtrak itself, as far as train travel goes, it’s perfect. I take a night train, so it’s never very crowded. the seats are huge and they recline and have footrests. they also allow pillows, blankets, sleep bags etc. the train is super quiet and doesn’t jolt around. when I take my trip to Dunsmuir, I fall asleep in Martinez and wake up in the early morning when I arrive.
I really enjoy traveling on Amtrak + the luxury of the Martinez station being an actual building rather than just a platform!

Getting to this station to catch a train can prove difficult as I discovered today/​I was traveling by Amtrak charter bus from Petaluma to Martinez. While driving down the highway our bus experienced a mechanical difficulty. Instead of the Martinez station calling for another bus to pick us up and bring the passengers to the station so they could make their train me and several others were stuck on the side of the highway and missed the train connection all together. After several phone calls an being hung up on by rude Amtrak customer support agents I continued to take a taxi from the side of highway 37 all the way to the station in Martinez. While the staff at the station refunded me the bus portion of this trip I feel that the customer service aspect of this business is not right. If I spend my hard earned money to take a trip I should be ensured a connection to my final destination without having to deal with customer support agents on the phone that make it seem like you are screwed in all scenarios. While I plan to use Amtrak again in the future this company needs to fix its charter bus issues from Sonoma County so the bus is on time and if there is any technical difficulties making efforts to send a relief bus for the passengers aid! Also on a side note make sure your drivers have some training in good manors and making the customer feel welcome. On top of all of this I did not appreciate being made to feel like an inanimate object who was just being transported as cargo to a destination.

One more thing to check off of my bucket list, a train ride. The Martinez Amtrak parking lot is a bit small, so make sure to arrive early in case you have to have a plan B for parking. This is the reason for 4 stars. The station is clean, and well maintained. The staff is very friendly and helpful to newbies like myself. The actual train ride was comfy and scenic. If you have the time, a train ride is the way to go, and skip the airport security hassles.

I used to take the amtrak often between 1999 — 2001, the timeliness was always a problem, but that’s GREATLY improved.
As we barely made it on the train without ticket, a kind conductor suggested a way to avoid the on train charge by purchasing a ticket for a future train on our smart phone. Great customer service, very timely, this makes my previous experiences on amtrak dissolve into the past… this may now be my preferred method of travel to visit family up north.

The Martinez station is a great hub station. This station is a major Interchange for several trains and connections.
The coast starlight #11 and #14 both, several of the corridor trains to the capitol, bay, inland empire, valley north and south, and thru way buses all stop here at this busy location for Amtrak.
This is a fairly modern facility, with ticketing services, passenger boarding and plenty of parking on a well lit parking lot.
Just east of the bay, this station allows boarding and access to both the southern and northern halves of California.
A great way to see California and the rest of the country.
Ride the train!
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