West - Train back to SEA from Montana or Wyoming

I have to do a business trip to Montana or Wyoming soon and I was thinking of doing part of it by train. The Montana stops for Amtrak seem to be pretty remote, so it's not like I could drop off a rental car there. It doesn't look like it stops in Casper, WY, where I have to go in Wyoming. Does anyone have any input on how I can do this? I'd be flying in and was looking to get a train back.

Thanks.

You're right, the Amtrak stations in Montana are pretty remote, along the northern tier of the state and far from the I-90/I-94 corridor. Additionally, Amtrak does not offer service at all in Wyoming.

From Casper, the easiest way to hook up with Amtrak would be to drive south to Denver. However, to take the train from Denver to Seattle would mean taking the train west to Sacramento, then north to Seattle. A scenic journey, but perhaps longer than you'd like. (But nonetheless worth considering)

That said, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of a one-way car rental from Casper to an Amtrak stop in Montana. Budget, for instance, has a location in Havre, which is a "major" stop on the Empire Builder route. The Budget location isn't at the train station, per se, but it's probably no more than a mile or so away. From there you'd have a nice, direct train ride to Seattle.

The downside is that the drive from Casper to Havre is probably a good 8-10 hours, so you'd probably have to drive to Havre the day before and get a hotel room, because the westbound Empire Builder stops at Havre mid-afternoon...so the whole thing might turn out to be more expensive and lengthy than you'd wish. But the novelty/adventure factor would possibly make up for that.

(The one-way car rental option may work to other Amtrak stations in Montana...I chose Havre because it's the largest town east of the Rockies where Amtrak stops)

If you have any flexibility on the Wyoming trip and an put it off, AMTRAK periodically diverts through Wyoming when track work is being done in Colorado. The train runs north from Denver to Cheyenne, then basically turns West and runs across the bottom edge of the state on its way to Salt Lake City and eventually to San Francisco. Of course, you then have to take a different train to Seattle.

If you decide to try the drive through Montana option, you might consider making your drive into a quickie Glacier National Park trip. GNP is not that far west from Havre and more of a "straight shot" up I-15. Your risk in going to Havre is that the Amtrak train westbound has been known to run late. I wouldn't want to spend a day cooling my heels in Havre waiting for a delayed train.:(

Instead, I'd use my daylight to explore GNP and drop the car/pick up the train in Whitefish, just West of GNP. You'll eat your dinner in the diner on the train, tuck into you sleeping car berth and wake up the next morning somewhere in central Washington. (If the train is running late, you can eat pretty well in Whitefish.) Whitefish also has a decent depot at which to wait for the train and should be big enough to drop a rental car.

Good luck!

If you have any flexibility on the Wyoming trip and an put it off, AMTRAK periodically diverts through Wyoming when track work is being done in Colorado. The train runs north from Denver to Cheyenne, then basically turns West and runs across the bottom edge of the state on its way to Salt Lake City and eventually to San Francisco. Of course, you then have to take a different train to Seattle.



But on the rare occasions that this happens, the train doesn't actually stop in Wyoming...so it doesn't really help the OP.

It used to be that Amtrak trains ran every day through southern Wyoming, stopping at all the towns along the I-80 corridor. That was because the railroad that owned the tracks from Salt Lake to Denver provided their own passenger train service, and did not want the Amtrak competition. Once that railroad gave it up (it was the last long-haul passenger line in the United States not part of Amtrak), then Amtrak immediately switched away from Wyoming to the route it now uses. Thus leaving the towns in Wyoming without any train service. :mad: But even when Amtrak did stop in Wyoming, it did not serve Casper.

Another option that used to exist, but no longer does, was Amtrak's Pioneer route, which ran from Salt Lake to Portland via Boise. Back then, passengers arriving in Salt Lake on the train from Chicago had the option of continuing straight west on to San Francisco on the train they arrived on, or going south-west down to Los Angeles via Las Vegas on the Desert Wind, or north-west on the Pioneer. And going eastbound, all three trains converged in Salt Lake and then became one train heading straight east through Wyoming. Or a person could get off in Salt Lake and take the privately owned train south-east to Denver.

Long haul train service in the United States just is not what it used to be. :(

Thanks for the input. I ended up driving. I pity the guy who had to clean that car. I'm sure there was 20 lbs of dead bugs stuck on it. I would stop to clean the windshield ever 2 hours. I also refused to drive at night. Too many animals. Very nice drive, but you don't even get reliable phone reception.