April 18, 2017
United Express San Francisco to Burbank 735a – 854a CRJ-200 Economy Class
Amtrak Burbank to Portland 1029a – 530p+1 Coast Starlight First Class

First off, most people traveling by train from Chicago to Seattle would probably take the direct route via Amtrak’s Empire Builder, a perfectly good train which I have ridden and reported upon many times previously. That said, I wanted more and so I cashed in enough award points to ride not only the California Zephyr but also the Coast Starlight from Burbank up to Seattle.

Truth be told, I could have connected to the Coast Starlight directly from Emeryville and saved myself a day. Still, the southern end of the Starlight’s route – between Ventura and Salinas in particular – offers some of the prettiest scenery you can travel through on Amtrak’s system, rolling along past 113 miles of spectacular Pacific coastal scenery before turning inland and climbing through the verdant hills and fruited plains to places like San Luis Obispo and Paso Robles. Here’s a map and a shot of the Starlight rolling north along the Pacific Coast…



The Route of the Coast Starlight


Rails along the Pacific coast
Photo courtesy of Amtrak


Why Burbank and not LAX? A couple of reasons, really. First and foremost, the Hollywood Burbank Airport has an on-site train station from which I could board the northbound Coast Starlight. This would save me a lot of time over flying into LAX and then catching the FlyAway bus over to LA’s Union Station. Secondly, United offers an excellent schedule and fare between San Francisco and Burbank that would allow me a leisurely hour and a half connection between plane and train. Now all that was left was to pray that SFO wouldn’t be fogged in that morning.

Thank goodness it wasn’t! My CRJ-200 regional jet took to the skies above SFO at 7:50am. The one hour flight down to Burbank allowed for a leisurely cup of coffee and an orange juice before I had to return my seat back to its full upright position for an on time arrival at BUR. It was a gorgeous Southern California morning and, with plenty of time to spare, I took a table at the airport restaurant for a tasty breakfast before heading outside the terminal and down the walkway to the train station.



United’s CRJ-200 at BUR


Train time at Burbank Airport


I didn’t have to wait long. The Coast Starlight rolled into the Burbank station right on time, its two lead P42DC locomotives powering an eleven car consist that included… YES!!! A Pacific Parlour Car “named Sonoma Valley”. Even better, my car – the 1430 Sleeper – was attached to the forward end of the Parlour car. Was this turning into a great day or what?!

After settling into my usual address on the rails – Room 11 downstairs – I spent a couple of moments getting acquainted with my car attendant Jackson before heading upstairs and back one car to the Pacific Parlour Car.



Entering the Pacific Parlour Car…


Continuing into the Pacific Parlour Car…


Lounge cars are available on all of Amtrak’s long distance trains but only the Coast Starlight has the Pacific Parlour Car in addition to a Sightseer Lounge Car for general use. Amtrak operates five Pacific Parlour Cars, all of which were originally built back in the 1950s for the Santa Fe's El Capitan, an all-Coach streamliner that offered an inexpensive alternative to the all-Pullman Super Chief. I remember riding on these cars back in the 70s and 80s when they served as the lounges on the Southwest Limited and the Sunset Limited. At that time their interiors hadn’t changed a whit since their days on the El Cap, complete with the original Southwest tones of turquoise, beige and rust. Downstairs in what is now a movie theater was the Kachina Coffee Shop. By the late 1980s these cars were showing their age and though they weren’t as nice as the newer Sightseer Lounge cars, I always enjoyed the historical aspect of riding them. In any event, as more Superliner equipment came online these old lounge cars were eventually retired to spend the next few years sitting neglected in the LA yards. I remember seeing them out there with broken windows after kids had used them for target practice. It was a sad sight for those of us familiar with their heritage.

In the mid-1990s Amtrak decided to spruce up the Coast Starlight, which was at that time the most profitable train in the Amtrak system. As part of the improvements, they decided to bring some of the old Santa Fe Hi-Level lounges out of retirement and refurbish them as the dedicated First Class lounges we now call Pacific Parlour Cars. The cost to renovate each of these cars came to about 2 million per car.

Each Parlour Car is outfitted with eight large swivel chairs, a small lounge area with sofas and cocktail tables and six four seat tables with buffet style seating. At one end of the lounge is a stand-up bar offering a full range of beer, wine and spirits in addition to coffee, tea and soft drinks. At the other end is a small library with a collection of used books and board games. Full meals featuring a menu unique to the Pacific Parlour Car are also available upstairs in the lounge. Honestly, aside from sleeping and showers, it’d be very easy to spend the entire journey in this car. Oh yeah – did I mention that it also features complimentary Wi-Fi?

For some odd reason the decision was made to use the British spelling of Parlour on these cars. Perhaps someone in marketing thought it lent a touch of class. However you choose to spell it – these Pacific Parlour Cars are some of the nicest cars to be found anywhere on North American rails. For many people they are in and of themselves reason enough to pay the extra money for First Class accommodations on the Starlight.

Regardless of the scenery, the Pacific Parlour Car is a popular destination for First and Business Class passengers so I was surprised that one of the big stuffed swivel chairs was available. It was on the side facing inland rather than the ocean but hey – these are swivel chairs so just sit on it and spin. I tossed my day pack on the chair and headed back to the bar for a Bloody Mary. Returning to my seat, I spun to face west and before long was introducing myself to seatmates Rod and Mynah from Wellington, New Zealand. Truth be known Rod was born Australian but his family had relocated to New Zealand when he was ten. They had flown over from New Zealand in early April, spent a week visiting with their son and his wife who lived and worked in Houston, Texas and then caught the Sunset Limited over to LA where they’d spent the weekend before boarding the Coast Starlight for the 1370 mile ride up to Seattle. More relatives awaited in Vancouver, BC before they’d be boarding a flight back home to Wellington. Both of them had traveled fairly extensively through America and western Canada over the years. Rod especially appreciated how affordable First Class travel on Amtrak was relative to similar accommodation aboard trains in Australia which he said would easily have cost three times as much. Having done a fair bit of Australian rail travel myself, I totally concurred. While there are a variety of ways to make economy class rail travel in Australia very affordable, First Class tariffs are exorbitant.

I relayed to them the story of my 1988 ride aboard the Indian Pacific from Sydney to Perth in First Class. It involved a special sale wherein I’d be paired with an unknown roommate for the journey. Alright. On the day of travel, I showed up, boarded the train and settled into the large and somewhat dated compartment that included an ensuite shower. The roommate never did show up and so I had the room to myself all the way to Perth. Back in those days the First Class service and accommodations aboard the Indian Pacific were not as nice as they are today, but then a room similar to what I had would run close to $2000.00 USD these days.

Conversation flowed as we rolled through Van Nuys, Simi Valley and Oxnard without much notice. Then came Ventura and our first views of the ocean.



Oooooh – what a view!


Not many trains offer ocean views like this…


Perhaps it was because of the lull before summer vacation travel began in earnest, but it soon became apparent that in First Class at least we were only about 60% full, maybe less. This was particularly noticeable in the Parlour Car where on most trips demand combined with proper etiquette would dictate not hogging the big swivel seats throughout the most scenic portions of the trip. Today however, one of the big seats remained open throughout my stay.

Rod and Mynah had made luncheon reservations for 12:45pm in the Pacific Parlour car where a special menu separate from the main dining car menu offered a couple of different entrée selections. For lunch at least these are typically lighter choices such as an entrée salad or a specialty sandwich. Even so, meals in the Parlour Car are a popular option and today the tables were full up.

Some of the prettiest views on the trip are just north of Santa Barbara, especially at Refugio State Beach with its beautiful palm trees and pretty coastal views. Where else in the world can you get views like this from a train?



Wow!


Where else in the world can you get views like this from a train?


Shortly after we’d passed Refugio Beach I headed next door to the dining car for a bite to eat. In particular I was curious to see if the new menu format included any meal choices unique to the [i]Coast Starlight[./i]. It did not, so I went with what for me is the old tried and true, not to mention a real favorite of mine – the Black Bean and Corn Chipotle Burger with a side of bacon.



A good looking salad starter


Oceanside dining


Black Bean and Corn Chipotle Burger


Beautiful view from the dining car


After lunch, I returned to my sleeper, lowered the two facing seats into their full flat configuration and then stretched out for a little afternoon R&R. But first, I wanted to get a couple more pictures of the coastal splendor before we turned inland…



Afternoon shadows in Roomette 11


Are we really on a train with views like this?


Pacific Coastal Splendor


A twenty minute stop at San Luis Obispo provided a great opportunity to step off the train and enjoy the afternoon sunshine out on the platform. Smokers in particular were thrilled at the chance to light up as the opportunities to do so are few and sometimes far between aboard Amtrak trains. I’m glad I managed to quit back in the days when you could still smoke onboard the train.

It wasn’t long before the “All Aboard” call rang out and we all made our way back onboard our big silver hotel on wheels. The doors were closed, the whistle blew and off we went, commencing a gradual climb through mountains made extraordinarily green from California’s record winter rains.



San Luis Obispo


The green, green hills of the golden state


Wine country outside Paso Robles


Lounge Car afternoon


The rest of the day was pleasantly spent in a variety of ways – lounging in the Parlour Car, stretched out in my roomette, enjoying my second Steak & Shrimp dinner and finally finishing the last half of my bottle of Jack Daniels with Scott and Kevin, two guys who’d just gotten married in Santa Monica and were now on their honeymoon to Hawaii via Portland. Whaaaat?! Portland?! Yep. Not only did they have friends in Portland but they’d found a great airfare via Alaska Airlines to Maui. I just remember them both as a real hoot. I’ve rarely encountered two more intelligent and humorous people that seemed to play off each other so well. I should imagine Laurie who boarded at Martinez and joined us for the last of the bottle would have concurred.

A lot of people lament over what they would do to entertain themselves on a long train trip but honestly, so much of the fun in these circumstances lies in good old human interaction. Amtrak’s Pacific Parlour Car or Sightseer Lounge provide the perfect backdrop to do just that. The rest is up to us.

For some reason unannounced over the train’s PA system (We arrived about midnight, after all) we sat in the Sacramento station for almost three hours. I went to bed at about 1am and never did hear what caused our delay. We never did make it up though. While that doesn’t sound very good, there was one positive to be taken from our delay…