My mother and I rode the Amtrak bus from Bakersfield to Los Angeles about 12 years ago. We then took Amtrak to Alburque where I rented a car and drove to visit relatives in Texas.
The bus was not too bad but I would have preferred to have taken the train from Bakersfield to LA. The valley trains are pretty good. They run Bakersfield to the bay area. There are several train a day.
Have you checked flying into Fresno? Unless you can get a pretty good deal, it can be more expensive than flying to New York.
Also, there may be others coming up from LA; maybe we can check on ride sharing.
I may do ride sharing, but my back still hurts from the drive up to Washington and back.