43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief

This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I <i>loved</i> it. It&#x27;s hard to convey how different it is from flying.<p>Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts <i>after</i> I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same &quot;chore&quot; bucket as packing, finding a pet sitter, etc.<p>With a train, the second we reached the train station, it felt like the trip had started. Many train stations are beautiful historical buildings right in the heart of downtown, so you&#x27;re already experiencing a city and cool architecture. The staff and the whole process is <i>very</i> laid back without all of the security theatre nonsense of the TSA. It&#x27;s about as formal as going to a play.<p>Then you get on the train and you get to <i>completely</i> relax. I brought a book to read and some stuff like that, but I spent more than half the time literally just looking out the windows. Train tracks don&#x27;t need much surrounding infrastructure, unlike freeways, so their routes often go right through little towns, along the coast, etc. You&#x27;ll be seeing into people&#x27;s backyards, storage area for businesses, farmland, everything. It&#x27;s like a perfect cross-section of the entire US experience.<p>And it&#x27;s <i>quiet</i>. No constant roar of engines like a jet. You can talk at quiet volumes. The observation car feels like a chill coffee shop with an amazing always-refreshing-itself view.<p>Time slows down. You watch the sun set and then watch the light leak out of the sky. You go to bed and get rocked to sleep.<p>Taking a sleeper car train ride isn&#x27;t cheap in terms of time or money, but I would highly recommend it. I can&#x27;t wait to do it again.

If you enjoy cycling I highly recommend riding Amtrak somewhere you&#x27;d like to explore by bicycle with your whip checked &quot;trainside&quot; where it&#x27;s fully assembled and ready to ride.<p>There&#x27;s something magical about getting off the train in a different state with your bicycle ready to go no worse for wear. Especially at smaller stations, where the conductor or luggage handler will directly hand you the bicycle from the luggage car. It&#x27;s just such a personal and practical experience compared to flying.<p>This fall I rode the Zephyr from CHI to SAC with my Ibis Mojo checked, with just a backpack and helmet. The conductor handed me my bike at the luggage car in SAC, and I immediately pedaled right out the station, through town, and along the American River for a beautiful day of riding east into the Sierra Nevada towards my friends&#x27; home in Pollock Pines. No TSA, no implications of being some kind of terrorist or criminal, it was rather incredible by today&#x27;s standards... especially considering it cost me like $120 for the ticket+checked bike.<p>Edit: I also just wanted to remind folks that train stations have the luxury of residing smack dab in city centers. Good luck de-planing with a bicycle directly into an urban center. On a train it&#x27;s basically the default.

&quot;enjoying comforts like ... the airport lounges.&quot;<p>Hah! The credit card rewards ruined these. Now they&#x27;re all crowded and it&#x27;s just as hard to find a seat as it is outside the lounge. Plus the food in them isn&#x27;t that great anymore. The best benefit is usually a better view out the window. Real frequent fliers just get PreCheck+Clear and arrive at the airport closer to departure time.<p>I did this same train journey myself back in 2012. Great memories! I just wish 2 things:<p>1) Amtrak wouldn&#x27;t recycle the air on train carriages, it gets really stuffy. The downstairs washroom smells get mixed in too.<p>2) Single riders should be given both seats on these journeys. I was like 19 when I did this journey and an unusual middle aged lady was placed next to me. She kept asking me for medicines and fell asleep on my shoulder.<p>Riding through the desert outside of Albuquerque during sunset was the highlight. Walk all the way to the back of the train, look at the back window, get a rare listen of the jointed (not welded) tracks. Here&#x27;s my video of it -<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vimeo.com&#x2F;57261056" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vimeo.com&#x2F;57261056</a>

I&#x27;ve taken this same trip (although I started from DC and then jumped on the Southwest Chief in Chicago) and echo that it is a blast. I&#x27;m from the U.S. but most of my train trips have been in Europe (Mariupol - Lviv, Budapest - Berlin, Bucharest - Chisinau being some that stand out). The characters you meet on U.S. trains are a bit different, its full of people who have made a choice to be there given that air travel is often cheaper (than a sleeper car anyways) and way faster and given rates of car ownership in the U.S. Be prepared for lots of conversations (if you want them) with a broad cast of characters from train lovers to nervous flyers to probable drug dealers (okay this one is just speculation but got strong &#x27;avoiding TSA vibes&#x27; from a couple of people). Much of the scenery you pass by isn&#x27;t stuff you&#x27;d put on a postcard, but it opens your mind to just how vast America really is.<p>Overall, highly recommend anyone to do it if they&#x27;ve got a few days -- the next time I go I will probably splurge on a sleeper car instead of just sleeping in a seat in my jeans (okay for 1-2 days but tough for day 3)

For those of you interested in Amtrak sleeper cars, reserve early, and expect to pay the highest fares on the in-demand, scenic routes. Amtrak&#x27;s revenue management has gotten a lot better in the last few years, and they are in the midst of a rolling stock and staffing shortage. Sell-outs are common, and ideally, you want to reserve early enough to be in the base sleeper, which won&#x27;t be cancelled if equipment is scarce. There are frequent reports of sleeper car passengers being bumped down to coach (with a full refund of the room charge) about a month out when it becomes clear that Amtrak will only one sleeper instead of two on your route and you were booked in the second sleeper.<p>Otherwise, have a great trip, don&#x27;t be attached to arriving on time, and enjoy that observation car!

My parents took me on a trip via the California Zephyr, Coastal Starlight, and Empire builder when I was 5 years old. I&#x27;m now in my 40s and that was one of the most memorable trips I&#x27;ve ever taken. I re-took the California Zephyr with my wife some years ago, and hope to take it again with my child some day.<p>Memorable travel, not just memorable destinations.

You&#x27;ll adore the California Zephyr. The passage through the high, snowy ravines in the Rockies and beyond into the painted deserts of Utah and Nevada is a glorious sight to behold. However, if you have a choice, get on in Denver rather than Chicago, unless you&#x27;re keen to spend 20 hours marveling at the endless ocean of corn blanketing Iowa and Nebraska.

In 2014, I took my recumbent tricycle to San Francisco, and cycled in the direction of St Louis. I got as far as Tucson in the time I had available, and there boarded a train the rest of the way: something like a hundred dollars (not sleeper), and an extra ten for my trike, considerably cheaper than flying, and more interesting. Good stuff.<p>In 2021, I returned home from India to Australia once I could, but with quarantine arrangements at the time, had to land in Darwin. I knew there was a train from Darwin to Adelaide, but sadly discovered it’s <i>exclusively</i> targeted at tourists, something like $1,200. So I flew to Melbourne instead, around $450. Disappointing.<p>Rail is delightful stuff. I live out in western Victoria, and <i>vastly</i> prefer taking the train from Ballarat to Melbourne, rather than driving. It’s often 5–10km from the highway and goes through beautifully picturesque areas, whereas the highway is comparatively boring.<p>Going slow is also great. I’ve made a few multi-week cycling trips now, in the USA and New Zealand (and single-week in Australia). Take the different way you experience things by rail, and amplify that considerably further, though in slightly different directions as you’re still largely tied to <i>roads</i>. Recumbent tricycles are particularly excellent for the endeavour, with their inherent stability, high capacity and greater comfort. (I use a Greenspeed GT-3: for air&#x2F;rail conveyance, fold it in half and wrap it up in a tarp which can serve as a ground sheet when camping. Treat the rope you wrap it all up in to be consumable if dealing with the TSA: they’ve destroyed it thoroughly every time (like, longest remaining piece 1.5m out of a 10m rope, they’re putting <i>effort</i> into this), and significantly damaged the tarp a couple of times. Australia and New Zealand have never damaged either.)

The post suggests that &quot;freight trains have priority.&quot;<p>By law, passenger travel is expected to have &quot;precedence.&quot;<p>Read: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amtrak.com&#x2F;content&#x2F;dam&#x2F;projects&#x2F;dotcom&#x2F;english&#x2F;public&#x2F;documents&#x2F;corporate&#x2F;HostRailroadReports&#x2F;mythbusters-enforcing-amtraks-legal-right-to-preference.pdf" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amtrak.com&#x2F;content&#x2F;dam&#x2F;projects&#x2F;dotcom&#x2F;english&#x2F;p...</a>

Having taken the Zephyr before, despite not being practical, Amtrak is really stupidly beautiful. There&#x27;s something stunning in being in the middle of the mountains with nothing around.

I’m from Toronto. Twenty years ago, I had some business in SF, and I scheduled it for the same time as MacWorld SF.<p>My partner and I flew to Chicago, where we caught the California Zephyr to Oakland. We had a small cabin, but it was great. Waking up at 6am in Denver was astounding, as was that entire day. SLC at 1am was surreal. And crossing the Sierra Nevadas was unforgettable.<p>We hung out in SF for a few days, went to MacWorld, and I had a few meetings. Then back to Oakland for the Coast Starlight to Portland. Now we had a bigger cabin with its own bathroom and shower. Bliss!<p>From Portland, we took the Empire Builder across the top of the US back to Chicago, from whence we flew back to “HogTown.”<p>—-<p>Random memories:<p>1. Massively more comfortable than flying. You don’t have to go to a lot of trouble to get aisle seats and what-not just to avoid feeling like you’re an Amazon package being shipped somewhere.<p>2. You actually SEE the country. It’s amazing to fly over mountains and cities, but rolling past that scenery is so much better, especially when you can view it from the gondola instead of leaning past the passenger with the window seat to peer through a porthole.<p>3. Way more social. Kids were meeting each other and playing video games in the theatre car. We played cards with a couple we met. The stewards facilitate this by seating you at meals with other couples. If you’re a single, they make up different tables of four singles each meal to help you meet fellow travellers.<p>4. Unplanned interruptions are different on a train. There was an avalanche&#x2F;rockfall ahead of us in the Cascades, the train pulled onto a siding and we watched the “Snowball,” a work train, go by with its flatbed, crane, and hefty workfolks waving to us. A few hours later, back it came and we could proceed.<p>5. Way less stressful in every dimension I can think of, compared to modern aviation. It’s part of the vacation, not a way to get to the vacation.<p>Summary: Train travel, if you spring for a cabin, is land cruising without the buffets and casinos.

Nice read. I wish we had train configurations like those I took years ago in Europe: cabins with with 6 seats that converted to bunk beds in the evening-- even in coach class.<p>I would guess maybe in American culture, people would not be willing to sleep in a room with strangers, too bad, because it seems that the USA in the past had developed exactly this type of sleeper car: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;streamlinermemories.info&#x2F;?p=5983" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;streamlinermemories.info&#x2F;?p=5983</a><p>I&#x27;ve come close to booking a long haul with roomette, when I&#x27;ve had the time and could work on the train. In the end always decided the cost was too much, and at the same time sleeping in coach on Amtrak is not a nice experience.

I did the SF - Truckee train with my son during the summer. We got a roomette type of accommodation. The food was OK, the trip overall was pretty nice. But for the price, I&#x27;m not sure I would do it again. The train was &quot;not clean&quot; (there was a dirty used towel inside the bathroom), the room had some crumbles and overall it was not dirty, but it was clearly not properly cleaned. At least not to the level that I would&#x27;ve expected for the cost.<p>I might try other route just to give trains a shot again. I like the concept and the space and how comfortable is the ride, but SF - Truckee, I&#x27;m not sure I would do it again.

As someone who was born in India and spent a good 30 years of my life there before moving to US, I miss the train journeys so much. Most Indians like me who grew up taking train journeys to visit grandparents in the summer or that vacation trip(generally visiting some family or relatives) is a nostalgic experience but there is something magical about train journeys where you see the life moving in front of you. After every 100 kilometeres or so the landscape completely changes and you see life in a different way.<p>I really like what OP said in the blog post : &quot;Taking a train slows you down and gets you 34,000 feet closer to life on earth&quot; While growing up, we didn&#x27;t had access to air travel so the only option was life up close but I&#x27;m really joyed someone described in this way.

In college my friend and I took the Amtrak from Austin, TX to NYC for New Year’s Eve. The journey took 50 hours riding in coach plus an 8 hour layover in Chicago. Amazing memories and a fun way to see the country.

If, as so many are here, you’re in the Bay Area, the Coast Starlight from San Jose is a great way to travel down to LA or up to Portland or Seattle. It’ll take a while - but the trip, and the scenery, are part of the point.

Very pleasant travelogue. I enjoy long distance train travel when I have the time for it, and I think is a pretty helpful post for those considering it.<p>&gt; Also, economy does not include meals in the dining car and gets you no access to the observation car.<p>I&#x27;m pretty sure observation cars are open to all passengers, regardless of ticket status. Certainly nobody&#x27;s ever asked me for a ticket when going into one.

I love the random conversations on the train. Really would love to see more investment in the train in the USA.

There&#x27;s a huge error in an otherwise good article about traveling by Amtrak on a long distance train:<p>&quot;Also, economy does not include meals in the dining car and gets you no access to the observation car.&quot;<p>This is not true. Anyone on the train can sit in the observation car. Downstairs from the observation car is the snack bar, which was the only source of food for coach travelers when Covid otherwise closed the diner to non-sleeper passengers.<p>Source: I&#x27;ve ridden the Zephyr many times, the Southwest Chief is the same.

Did a trip on Amtrak last June. Coastal Starlight, Empire Builder, and California Zephyr over 12 days staying in a roomette on each leg. Room was small but comfortable. Meals were ok. Scenery was boring to spectacular. Downside was each train was late. It was slow. The cars were dirty, very dated and when underway, bounced around worse than a rodeo horse. It was very noisy at night with the stops we made and train whistles blowing seemingly constantly.<p>Would I do it again? Probably not.

I love that the author mentioned onebagging as well. It&#x27;s one of those things that you witness once on a group trip and from them on can&#x27;t help but think &quot;wait, that&#x27;s obviously the superior way to travel, what do I need well this luggage for?&quot; I&#x27;ve been thinking about it cause I&#x27;m wondering what else in my life I&#x27;m doing in an inferior manner simply out of not thinking about it &#x2F; following a bad pattern &#x2F; tradition (travel photos show people pulling luggage, that&#x27;s just what you do right? No!!!)<p>Once you get into it, statements like the article&#x27;s sound funny: &quot;three days is definitely doable for onebag trip!&quot; Hah, get your kit right and you can basically travel indefinitely, although you&#x27;ll probably get bored of your limited outfits.<p>If others are into this scene I&#x27;d love to know what you&#x27;re carrying. I&#x27;ve had a Tom binh synapse 25 for nearly 7 years now and the damn thing looks new as the day I got it despite being my daily carry and travel bag that entire time.

Tons of foamers in the HN community. I&#x27;m sure that it is a lovely experience, and seeing America is incredibly powerful.<p>But the truth is that you are in an extremely heavy, expensive, and slow vehicle that requires over 1000 man-hours to carry fewer than 300 seats the whole length of the ride. That doesn&#x27;t account for the capital costs of the vehicle or maintenance on the route, or overhead for the stations.<p>Loosening regulations to reduce the staff, making the train itself go faster (if possible), and allowing for lower cost and lighter weight cars (possibly to include the much denser sleeping cars found on Chinese and Swedish railroads) would change the economics from &#x27;taxpayer subsidized cruise&#x27; to &#x27;reasonable form of luxury transit&#x27;

I highly recommend the Coast Starlight from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo (or the other way around). The train goes through Vandenberg AFB and a lot of private property, where you cannot otherwise generally go. Just beautiful.

It does sound like a cruise. I’ve only been on a single cruise, but it was the best vacation I’ve ever had. Normally my life is constantly go go go. But on the cruise I had no choice but to do nothing. It was fantastic.

My obligatory reminder of what we lost when Stevie went to the great club car in the sky, where he&#x27;s playin&#x27; cards with the old men, ain&#x27;t nobody keeping score.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=e4ztWNJYFrU">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=e4ztWNJYFrU</a><p>The greatest train song of all time. Arlo Guthrie talking about how Steve came to him with that song:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=yZx7xCK6yfo">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=yZx7xCK6yfo</a>. (at 2:09)

I think I recognize that section of Chicago&#x27;s train station from my favorite scene of all time. That shootout scene from the movie The Untouchables. Correct me if I am wrong.

Interesting how this example did not offload airline demand ... instead it created it (for the return trip). I suppose it&#x27;s best seen as recreation, not transportation.

Ridden the ‘Chief before a few times. Always met some cool people to talk and play games with.<p>But really, after recent air travel, I’m like who wants to fly when they can take Amtrak?

Lovely post, thank you. I&#x27;ve always regretted that I didn&#x27;t attend a Train Jam before it went on hiatus. It followed a similar route from Chicago to San Francisco. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;trainjam.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;trainjam.com&#x2F;</a><p>If you&#x27;re a train lover, put the Swiss Glacier Express on your bucket list! This was my first experience of rail outside the USA, and it was mind-blowing.

Some suggestions re Amtrak: review carefully the speeds on your journey legs of interest - 80 miles&#x2F;hour across Kansas is nice, 35 m&#x2F;h on &quot;slow orders&quot; across West Texas feels interminable. Also (as OP mentions) note side of train and expected time of day relative to your preferred scenery of interest. For folks from Europe or Japan, Amtrak is no TGV, more like a pre-TGV inter-city sleeper.

The Zephyr from Denver to SF is the best Amtrak trip any time of year, but summer provides the most daylight. Coast Starlight is a strong second. The rest are meh. I also wouldn&#x27;t take a sleeper; if there&#x27;s an observation car, I&#x27;m in there whenever there&#x27;s light out. Once it&#x27;s dark, I&#x27;m either looking at my laptop or sleeping, and the economy seats are big enough to snooze in if you bring some blankets&#x2F;jackets to ball up and sleep against.<p>If you&#x27;re going to invest $1,200+ in a sleeper car, consider just driving. You can stop anywhere, eat anything, sleep in &quot;luxurious&quot; 2-star hotels (or obscure themed motels, like a desert strip full of Airstreams in Taos, NM), pick up souvenirs, meet locals. And you&#x27;d still save money.<p>I got really excited that they brought back the dining car, but then I remembered it&#x27;s only for sleeper car people now. Bummer :&#x2F;

I&#x27;ve done this twice and I&#x27;m still jealous! And yeah, not many people you tell can see the appeal. On the other hand, train!<p>&gt; <i>economy ... gets you no access to the observation car</i><p>This wasn&#x27;t true many years ago. Is this a recent change? Maybe Covid related to keep the amount of contacts down?<p>Also if you&#x27;re in coach, you can still reserve a spot in the dining car and pay for your meal (or at least you <i>could</i>). I did that a few times over the course of a trip. Lots of weird characters in coach, for better and for worse. But at least you know why the train is stopped in a crossing to let Amtrak police board, or who the FBI agents are looking for.<p>I&#x27;d describe taking the train as like a condensed driving trip. If you&#x27;ve got a few days to spare getting to your destination, but not the month required for a full cross country road trip, it&#x27;s definitely worth doing!

Pro tip, if you take a trip with friends and book the two adjoining family bedrooms, the door that separates them is &#x27;locked&#x27; using what equates to a fireplace key. I keep one in my luggage so I don&#x27;t have to ask the attendant to lock&#x2F;unlock the door.

The best part of this was the malort, hands down.<p>-- All jokes aside: I discovered how great the long distance west bound trains are through the Empire Builder train. It&#x27;s great, it s peaceful, and it&#x27;s relaxing. Also, it&#x27;s a heck of a lot better than the OBB nightjet trains.

I took the 2 day train from Vancouver to Winnipeg, on the first night I had some Of the next conversations and ended up with a friend for the whole journey. All while sailing through the snow capped mountains. I would do it again I’m a heartbeat.

If you are a light sleeper I would not recommend taking an overnight train, especially on Amtrak. I took the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago once and found it essentially impossible to sleep for three days, which killed whatever romanticized notions I previously had about train travel.<p>The train is constantly rumbling over the tracks, the horn is being blared at every crossing, and PA announcements happen throughout the night. Even with earplugs I could not fall asleep. Oh and the train arrived 20 hours late.<p>YMMV, but my advice is to do a short trip before trying a long one!

Between train and plane in Europe I will almost always choose train hands down. Oftentimes the trip time is comparable. Train station are in the city center, so it&#x27;s easy to book the hotel in the walking distance. For plane it is a taxi to the airport, two hours at the airport, flight time, luggage collection and a taxi to the hotel. Up to 500 km speed train would be faster, and up to 1000 km it is still more comfortable.

The article (and images) give out good &quot;Midnight Run (1988)&quot; vibes. It&#x27;s a great movie. Highly recommended if you haven&#x27;t seen it.

We can hear the Chief whistle in each direction every day that it passes through our part of New Mexico. But the author didn&#x27;t even take a photograph of my station, Lamy NM (the get-off point for Santa Fe). Unbelievable! :)<p>We&#x27;ve only done the Lamy&lt;-&gt;Chicago section of the Chief, but the timing is so great for that: depart both places mid-afternoon, arrive 25 hrs later (delays notwithstanding).

&gt; I could have bought an economy ticket for $150, but sitting for so long was out of the question. If I treat this as a cruise, I want a good level of comfort.<p>As someone who&#x27;s done the Crescent (30 hours) and City of New Orleans + Lake Shore Limited (38 hours + layover) on Economy, you get about the same comfort sleeping, just none of the privacy. The seats in Economy are close to the ones in the bedrooms, you just can&#x27;t lay them completely flat.<p>What you&#x27;re paying $1,000 for is privacy and access to a shower.<p>Also:<p>&gt; You can get a bedroom or roomette on an Amtrak sleeper car. A roomette fits two people, with the second person having to sleep on a bunk bed contraption under the room’s ceiling. I was going alone on this trip, and a roomette seemed to be the best choice.<p>The standard bedroom also sleeps two, and all Amtrak beds are &quot;bunk bed contraptions&quot;. The bedroom gets you an in-room shower.<p>Indeed, there are four types of bedrooms:<p>- bedroom (seat and sofa that convert to beds, in-room shower)<p>- bedroom suite (two adjoining bedrooms, including both in-room bathrooms)<p>- family bedroom (4 seats that fold to beds, using the roomette shower shared with the car)<p>- accessible bedroom (larger wheelchair-friendlier roomette with its own sink, using the roomette shower shared with the car)<p>&gt; I didn’t care much about which side of the train I was on because the scenery is very similar, no matter which way you look. This is more important if you take a train along the coastline<p>If you&#x27;re on a north-south route, sunrises and sunsets matter a lot, not just for viewing but also determining when you wake up and go to sleep.<p>&gt; I was happy to learn that Chicago has a decent public transit system.<p>I mean... which one? ;) Glad he did a shot of Malört before he left though, and Union Station is beautiful.<p>&gt; I immediately noticed a lot of Amish people sitting in the large hall. This is because travel by plane is considered too modern and travel by train appears to be very popular amongst them.<p>They might&#x27;ve been Mennonites or Hutterites, who are also Anabaptists but don&#x27;t have Amish rules on public electrical grids or motorized vehicles.<p>&gt; I had a 7pm reservation and walked over to the car right in front of mine, the restaurant car. Because space is limited, you will sit with other passengers at tables holding 4 people. ... This is why the food is surprisingly delicious.<p>Some context: This traditional Amtrak dinner service is very recently back after several years of being cut, especially on the west coast. Availability varies by route and ticket type. It used to be on almost all long routes and available to coach passengers too; it might be back for coach passengers on some routes by now, it&#x27;s been in the works on eastern trains since 2021.<p>&gt; I spent almost the entire day in the observation car<p>This is really the key. The observation car, if your line has one, is the best part of the trip.<p>&gt; For dinner, we closed the place down. The friendly staff had a bottle of wine to empty, and we were there, talking until almost midnight.<p>This is the thing too, unlike planes where the crews turn over pretty often between flights, a train line&#x27;s crew is often on for the whole ride and pretty regular. You can get to know them pretty well if you make the effort, and they&#x27;ll often remember you if you take the same route again.

Is it possible to book a ticket that has multiple stops? I considered doing this trip ten years ago and making the most of a three month tourist visa as I did it. What put me off then was that I couldn’t say, spend a few days in Colorado if I liked it then get back on another train, much like inter rail lets one do.

I’ve taken Amtrak in the loop Sea-Chi-TX-LosAng-Sea both forward and backwards.<p>It’s nice going through Glacier Natl Park and surrounding areas in Spring.<p>Get a sleeper car! Plush. Especially if you’re single. It was cool (in my young days) meeting people in the observation car and offering them a place to crash.<p>Ahhhh… back in the day…

Great writeup and great read. This reminded me of the time I took the Coast Starlight from LA to Seattle with my mother. Some beautiful memories.<p>I highly recommend taking a long distance Amtrak route, when you can. You get to see a beautiful part of America.

My brother and I surprised my dad with this trip for his 80th. Excited to ride!

I got a little bumped when the article cited friends saying why not fly:<p>“enjoying comforts like in-flight entertainment, drinks, snacks, and the airport lounges”<p>Are you not allowed snacks, drinks or entertainment on the train?!

I did a train from Seattle to Portland once. Highly recommend, very scenic. But don&#x27;t feel need to take a train again. Would rather take a plane and spend more time in my destination.

This was a popular YouTuber that sadly passed away many years ago. He also liked to travel by train.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;@hobestobe">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;@hobestobe</a>

Taking the train for long trips is so relaxing and fun. Make sure you get a bedroom and bring books to read. You meet plenty of interesting people making their journey too.

For the record, shorter distances on deutsch bahn are awesome if you just chill in the dining car and order food&#x2F;coffee the whole way. Adds up tho.

I was tempted to do the same in Australia but the costs are stupid expensive.<p>Like thousands. You can go to holiday in Bali for that cost.

My last Amtrak ride was great once we were on the train. The six hour delay waiting with my toddler was horrendous.

Next time try 8 hours on an Amtrak Northeast Corridor train in business class over Thanksgiving :)

It&#x27;s too bad Amtrak doesn&#x27;t allow larger sized dogs.

What a nostalgic post. This is finally something I think I can contribute to. Long post ahead, scroll to the bottom for TLDR.<p>I toured the US via Amtrak twice; once in 2007, and again in 2010. Both trips originated at New York Penn.<p>The first time I did it was on the Lake Shore Limited from NYP to Chicago, then the California Zephyr to Emeryville with a shuttle to San Francisco. Did the same route back.<p>During this trip, I stayed a night in Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco.<p>Chicago was great. I would live here in a heartbeat if it weren&#x27;t for the weather. I tried walking up a pier since I was curious about why there was a huge mound of ice there but not on the street. Bad fucking idea. Windy City is no joke. Had African food nearby; delicious.<p>Discovered Intelligentsia Coffee while there. Incredible. I still always stop at Intelligentsia whenever I go to Chicago.<p>I had a can thrown at me in Omaha while I walked eight miles to a film festival that someone advertised at a coffee shop. I saw The Joneses there. Good movie.<p>I was reminded during the walk that I packed LIKE SHIT for this trip. Stuffed everything (including a shit Canon 300D) into a cheap bag that my first job at Macquarie gave us. The handles broke from the bag mid-walk, so I had to get creative. Fortunately I took public transit back. Terrifying.<p>At Denver, a lady told me to delete a photo I took of a bus stop I took that had a bullet hole through it. (Jokes on her; I lost ALL of the photos I took of this trip!) Also walked through downtown Denver, which was very small back then. I&#x27;m sure it&#x27;s insane now.<p>Salt Lake City was interesting. Found out here that my ex-girlfriend was pregnant with her first with someone else she was dating. Devastated me since I still had feelings for her. (This was a blessing in disguise, as it turned out that I didn&#x27;t want kids. Married an amazing woman a few years later who was more aggressive about childfree than I was. We still don&#x27;t have kids, and our life is amazing ten years in.)<p>I toured the Mormon Temple, which was fascinating. Later, I went to a rock show somewhere in the outskirts. EVERYONE there was white except me (I&#x27;m black) and EVERYONE stopped to stare at me. It was almost like one of those scenes where the music stops and everyone stares at the subject. In retrospect, it might have been the SLR on my neck. Anyway, didn&#x27;t stay there long. Fuck that place still.<p>San Francisco was fun. Still have some photos from this part of the trip thanks to PhotoRec. I stayed at the Travelodge at Fisherman&#x27;s Wharf. It was $79&#x2F;night then. I walked to Sausalito and was awe-struck by how quaint the houses were.<p>The second time was a &quot;coastal&quot; tour. I took the Crescent to New Orleans, then the Sunset Limited to LAX, then Amtrak Coast Sunlight from LAX to Seattle, the Empire Builder to Chicago, then Lake Short Limited back to NYP.<p>On this trip, I stopped at Charlotte, Atlanta, NOLA, Houston, Tucson, LAX, Portland, Seattle, and Chicago.<p>Now that I had some more money from my job, I upgraded my equipment a bit. Bought a Gregory 75L pack (hugely overpacked) that I still have today and took photos on my Samsung Galaxy Vibrant (because I sure as fuck wasn&#x27;t losing these photos).<p>I had Waffle House for the first time ever in Atlanta. As stupid as this is, this (and the weather) was the thing that made me fall in love with the South. Waffle House is incredible. Better than 99% of the diners I grew up with in NYC. Was astounded by how NYC didn&#x27;t have any of these. I SWEAR the waffles were bigger then.<p>(Didn&#x27;t know anything about its politics or propensity for Christianity and still mostly don&#x27;t care. I was locked in and this was happening. Almost moved to Dallas in 2010. Almost moved to Houston in 2012, but stayed for my now-wife. Finally moved to Dallas in 2016 and then to Houston in 2020.)<p>Stayed at my first fancy-feast hotel in New Orleans. I thought the stay was $130 total; haha, it was actually $130&#x2F;nt...and I was there for two nights! That was a lot of money for me back then. (I&#x27;m now typing this from a Ritz Carlton...that I paid with points because I&#x27;m still cheap LOL. Thanks, tech industry!) Missed mardi gras, but Bourbon St was still insane. Loved Old French Quarter; saw an awesome hillbilly river punk band there.<p>Houston was fun. Took the bus everywhere. Was quickly introduced to the shittitude that was Houston METRO in 2010. Walked the underground tunnel system. Really sad, as it was clear that it was bustling in the 80s and maybe the 90s. Saw black cowboys trot their horses on some main street. Didn&#x27;t know black cowboys existed.<p>Tucson was my shortest stay followed by LAX. I didn&#x27;t book a hotel there so I only had whatever time I had for the train to switch crews. Very cute city. Back then they only had a single main strip. Not sure now.<p>The only thing I remember about LAX is dining at Dinah&#x27;s. Food was good.<p>So remember how I said I took the Coast Starlight? Well, lol, I actually didn&#x27;t. The tracks were being renovated, so we had to take a bus from LA to Portland, riding I think the PCH along the way. Absolutely stunning...but not as much from a bus LOL.<p>Portland was really interesting. Very very VERY quirky town. Not the REI model city it is now. (Still love Portland; I do my solo vacations there.) Had voodoo doughnuts and Stumptown before they blew up. (This was something I planned to do, as I was massively into coffee back then, like I still am now.) Holy shit, those donuts were incredible. Spent a few hours with his attractive older woman who I went dancing with. I was into older women, so I was particularly invested in this moment, Nothing happened, but it was a good time. Stayed across the river where the Portland sign is. 0&#x2F;10; would not recommend.<p>Seattle was fun. It rained, of course. Had Starbucks at Pike Place. It was...Starbucks. Had a lot of other great coffee while I was there. Hung out at a meetup at a bar. Met some great people there. I remember a doctor telling me that hand sanitizer was mostly worthless. This was interesting to think about during COVID. Went up the space needle.<p>Didn&#x27;t see ANYTHING from Seattle to Chicago because of snow. Didn&#x27;t even know there were cities up there. (We stopped at Minot for a bit, which surprised me.)<p>TLDR: As for the train trip itself: OP is spot on. DO IT. There is no better way to see how incredible the US is. You will meet (very) interesting people, the dinner is surprisingly delicious, and you are forced to do nothing for large segments of the trip since cell service is unreliable (though definitely not as unreliable as it was back when I did it; back then, most of the trip didn&#x27;t have cell coverage at all, and I sure as shit couldn&#x27;t afford roaming!).<p>I booked mine with a USA Rail pass; $500 to ride 10 segments, which is just enough to see the entire US. Slept on the seats instead of getting a fancy sleeper like OP did.<p>You will need to spend time planning how to do it, as the trains arrive and depart at weird times. You&#x27;ll also need to account for delays, since most of the rail segments are owned by the freighting companies. Interestingly, this is a holdover from the time when these rail lines were owned by those same companies! The route names are actually what those trains were called before Amtrak (AMRC) consolidated them in the 80s.<p>I would absolutely recommend making a vacation out of it by staying at a few cities along your route. Lots of travelers dunk on how boring the US is and seek adventure overseas to compensate. Couldn&#x27;t be farther from the truth. Every big city is different, and every state is different. If you can, avoid renting a car and use public transit or walk. Every city is the same if you drive point to point everywhere.<p>Thanks for reading.

this sounds fun! I should try this!

I took the Coastal Starlight SF-LA train this winter with young kids and family and it was an a very nice upgrade to the usual car drive (keeping the littlest one strapped in a car seat for 7 hrs would have been miserable). The views, the conversations, the slower pace, and the adventure &#x2F; novelty were the best parts and enjoyed by everyone. The price was also much better than flying, as there was a lot of us. Having bathrooms and food and an ability to move around is a huge upgrade on travel with kids. We did business class as the ride was not overnight, but did both legs - 12 hrs each to enjoy the views of the ocean during daytime on the way back. Best part of the trip!<p>There are some down sides as well:<p>1. Norovirus - the bathrooms had comical “no touch” stickers by the sink that was definitely not no touch (you had to push the button constantly to get water, even in business class, the economy ones were worse). As a result, we all caught a stomach bug on the way down that played out fully for the kids on the way back. Bring spare clothes and more hygiene products than normal. The upside: we had bathrooms and cleaning materials at our disposal to clean up the mess and we didn’t have to stop anywhere to do it.<p>2. The business class felt less cramped than coach, and the conversations with strangers were excellent, there were also people on the train that were giving headaches to the train attendants (people sneaking in alcohol and bothering other passengers, people who would not be allowed to fly etc). Normally that’s not an issue, but with little kids on board, we had to be extra careful. On the upside, train is also the best way to travel if you are alone and we met amazing people who were sharing their life story and enjoying a captive audience you wouldn’t get with any other form of travel.<p>3. The food, while surprisingly good on a first meal (compared to airline food), was also very surprisingly insufficient on the last leg of all of their trips (which SF to LA was). The cafe was emptied out of food by early afternoon, and the dining car REFUSED to serve or even make TOGO food for anyone who was not in a sleeper car. We had a lot of hangry family who was was excited for a meal and ended up eating chips and junk food instead.<p>4. Because the food provider is a monopoly on the train, they also seemed to short customers of the dining car in what they were paying for with their prix-fix meals, which is your only option on the dining car. Every person pays the same price for a multiple item meal, but we were not told that or offered parts of the meal we were due until we found out and started asking for them on each meal. Since you can’t hop off the train to grab food elsewhere, make sure to bring snacks and alternatives with you.<p>TLDR: Great with kids, cheaper and less stressful than air or car, but mind your hygiene and bring food backup if you’re not in a sleeper car.

So, to summarize: 1. No beautiful woman in an adjoining cabin. 2. No high stakes poker games. 3. Not a single murder to solve. 4. No apparent spies. And given the menu had only three wine selections it would be very difficult to ferret out any spies using ones high class upbringing. So for all we know the train could be lousy with spies. 5. Nobody gets tossed off the train. 6. No fight on top of the train cars while the train is approaching a tunnel.<p>Amtrack is really going downhill.

lol Amish, 1830 technology is OK but hell no to 1930<p>somehow technology became &quot;evil&quot; in those 100 years<p>human indoctrination is mind-boggling, sets back entire civilization

Are these niche Amtrak routes profitable or just political pork necessary to get politicians on board with funding Amtrak?

This well written article has had the unfortunate effect of turning me into someone who now believes Amtrak, outside the NE corridor, should basically be abolished. At least long distance Amtrak routes.<p>Amtrak is subsidized because it’s considered transportation. But any 40+ hour trip cannot be considered transportation. As the author points out, it’s basically best treated like a cruise trip.<p>Why are we subsidizing people’s day+ vacations?<p>There appears to be absolutely no benefit to this and any incremental environmental benefits provided by a few hundred people traveling between Chicago and LA by train instead of plane each day is negligible.<p>This isn’t an indictment of train travel. It’s an indictment of Amtrak.