First Class on Amtrak's Coast Starlight
 

The Coast Starlight is by far the finest train in the Amtrak system. A ride on this train offers an excellent opportunity to experience old fashioned style and comfort in an age where speed and efficiency are now are the watchwords. Normally I could never afford a First Class ticket aboard this train but Alaska Airlines offers just that in exchange for 20000 miles from their Frequent Flyer program. This is the same amount required for their round trip coach saver award, giving one a round trip in a single bedroom, all meals included, anywhere between Seattle and LA.

A good train trip starts with the train station. The finest stations are truly works of art, indeed they are monument to transportation. Just walking into a big city train station can be awe inspiring ~ the high sculpted ceilings, the polished stone floors, the church-pew like seats, the classic announcements, the slight hint of old cigar smoke… New York's Grand Central Station immediately comes to mind.

Unfortunately, Seattle's King Street Station falls a bit short in all of these areas except for perhaps the cigar smoke. I do however remember reading that the men’s restroom at this station was once voted Best In The Nation back during a time when such things were worthy of public accolade. These days my personal vote would go to the Loews Odeon Cineplex Theaters in Sacramento, California. An awesome water closet!

Train arrivals aren’t like airplane arrivals. They’re much more impressive. Like a parade. The Coast Starlight pulled up to the platform at 9:30am. First came the big 4000 horsepower diesel locomotives; bells clanging, engines churning, their power almost tangible. Next came the baggage car, then the big double deck sleepers – each named after a state – followed by the Pacific Parlor Car, the dining car, the Sightseer Lounge Car and four or five coach cars.

The call to board came soon after. Amongst all the passengers lined up for the Sleeper Cars, I was the only one carrying a backpack. I was the only one with a beard. I was also one of the few without a walker or a cane. I was definitely the youngest of the group. I saw some fellow backpackers in the coach car line looking at me with some confusion. What's he doing over there? He looks like one of us! I waved like a lottery winner and strolled out to Car 1130, named “Texas”. The car attendant, Faisal, showed me to Room 13, downstairs on the right. Small but exceedingly functional, it was better than many First Class Sleeper Suites in the sky. Wide reclining seat, big 5’ picture window with curtains, numerous lights, a thermostat, towels, hangers and a metal compartment that slid out from below the seat that would be more than suitable for icing down some beers later in the trip. Shower and bathrooms down the hall, coffee, juice and ice upstairs, complementary meals ~ what more could one want? Well, OK, an onboard masseuse would be nice…

Meals are pretty good too. For lunch I ordered a salad and a bacon avocado burger. For dinner I selected a chicken breast wrapped in a pastry shell with a creamy mushroom sauce atop it all, asparagus on the side. Very tasty! Seating is communal so you meet a lot of different people. At breakfast I sat across from a well dressed couple from Florida who had visited Denali National Park where I worked this past summer. The man was a retired postal employee from a small town in Illinois and had never been to California. Further conversation revealed he’d not been to many places outside of Florida and Illinois and was in no hurry to go anywhere soon. On the possibility of going to Hawaii this winter, he opined why go all the way over there when Florida had plenty of tropics right near by? By comparison, his wife was the real go-getter. She especially enjoyed train travel and had ridden almost as many trains as I had. Intentionally, I might add. I hope her husband finds a way to enjoy Hawaii and the rest of the world because for sure she’s not going to let him sit around in Florida the rest of his retirement. Across from me sat a kinda geeky looking guy in a Metallica T-shirt, black plastic glasses and a somewhat casual approach to grooming. His oatmeal had arrived by the time we were sat and as he waited for his sugar and raisins he held his fork and spoon in clenched fists on either side of his bowl. I thought he might be kidding but he kept a firm grip on that silverware until his condiments arrived. He didn’t have a lot to say initially but later told us he worked for ITT as an engineer working on satellites. He’d been sent to some interesting places in the course of his employment with ITT. Thule, Greenland; a couple of remote stations in Alaska and various bases all over America. He was also a railfan.

Most everyone who chooses to ride a train in this age of exceedingly affordable air travel is a railfan to some extent. Indeed on many longer routes it’s more expensive to take the train than to fly, especially when you add in the cost of meals. Most people simply enjoy the leisurely pace of a train. Others are full blown railroading fanatics that can quote chapter and verse the pre-Amtrak history of Southern Pacific’s Daylight and Starlight trains through California or the gear ratios on GE’s new Genesis Class locomotives. I’m a railfan too but outside of having ridden every Amtrak route in America over 200 miles in length, I can’t keep up with most of the history and technical buffs. The one thing we all share in common is the sheer enjoyment of going somewhere on a train and since that’s exactly what we were all doing at the moment, we were all having a fine time.

The final two hours before we arrived in Santa Barbara were spent rolling along the Pacific coastline, one of the few times the train actually skirts the coast. The sun was low in the western sky, shimmering off the water’s surface. Quite nice to be seated in one of the big overstuffed swivel chairs in the parlor car taking it all in. An elderly couple seated nearby marveled at the beautiful coastline but for some odd reason seemed overly surprised that there were no people out on the beaches. “Where are all the people?” the man would wonder aloud each and every time we passed another beach. His wife would cluck and shake her head as she’d probably been doing for the past forty years in support of her husband’s many observations. We were still quite a ways from anywhere. I guess they figured that all beautiful beaches, regardless of how remote, just ought to have people out enjoying them. The man’s constant observations of this point grew tiresome. Just enjoy the view, dude. Stop complaining! Eventually we went past a state campground that also appeared to be deserted. Sure enough, he commented on this as well. I felt a need to respond. My suggestion that there might be a bit of anthrax in the area was not well received and when I later blurted out “Hey look! There's a couple of people being taken out to sea by the riptide!” I became positively unpopular. Whaaat! Some people have no sense of humor… The man’s observations ceased however. (Historical note: This report was written during the big anthrax scare in early 2002)

A half hour later, we eased into Santa Barbara right on time. Dusk, palm trees, 75 degrees, a gentle breeze, and the whole evening ahead of me yet. I exited the train refreshed, relaxed and ready for a fun night in Santa Barbara.

All things considered, I heartily recommend a trip on a long distance American passenger train before congress decides to stop subsidizing Amtrak altogether. So far as I know, Amtrak has never had a profitable year and it seems only a matter of time before all trains in America outside of the busier corridors such as Washington, DC to New York to Boston disappear altogether.

Great report. I've always wanted to ride the Starlight and had no idea Alaska offered such a good deal.

Great report. I would love to take this or any similar trip. For now I must make due with day trips with the family to Pennsylvania to ride on Thomas The Tank Engine.

One minor request...could you edit out the long line of *** in your post so it is smaller? I, and many others here, like to print out trip reports since it can be pain to read on the computer, and that long chain extends the margins so it doesn't print correctly. Thanks! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Thanks for a great report.

This is something I would like to try sometime soon...

Thanks for the report. Is it the V2F1 award that you used, with travel valid between Seattle and L.A.?


There's an Amtrak prize draw for those interested:

http://www.amtrak.com/sweepstakes/index.html

I'd concur about taking a long-haul train at least once so you can have the experience. In late 1992 I went by rail from Washington to Washington via Washington (that's DC and back to DC via Seattle) with a week driving a rental car to whatever looked interesting in between. The trains were comfortable, but slow. I did, however, get to pass through the town of Wiggins, Colorado.

The experience aboard AMTRAK's east-bound Empire Builder between Seattle and Chicago that sort of sums it all up is when you go through Glacier National Park just after sunrise, so you sit in the dome car with a cup of coffee and watch all this incredible December scenery cruise by.

My forthcoming April itinerary:

From Orlando along the lush St. John's River and past sinkhole lakes to Jacksonville, overnight across the Florida Panhandle, dawn breaks along the Gulf coast west of Mobile, mid-morning arrival in New Orleans with lunch in or around the French Quarter. Afternoon through the rich Mississippi Delta to Jackson and on to Memphis, overnight to Chicago. Spend the day in Chicago with a visit to the Art Institute's exhibition on contemporary train and station design, then overnight by a new sleeper service to Louisville. Rent a car for a couple days to explore bluegrass country and Mammoth Cave, the world's largest.

[This message has been edited by Explore (edited 01-16-2002).]

Sorry for the delay in responding to this, as I've been without internet access for awhile.

The reward I used was indeed the V2F1 I'm in it for the experience of the travel moreso than the destination in this case. As such, better to enjoy another 36 hours of train travel on the return trip than to get it over with in just 2 hours on a plane.



[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited 01-25-2002).]

Great trip report Seat 2A.

I took my first long distance trips in the US earlier this year having previously traveled all over Europe by train without bothering with sleeping compartment or couchettes. Many of the trains had seats divided into compartments that pulled down to make one big bed that would be shared by whatever backpackers were overnighting on that trip. I remember one funny train ride from Venice to Nice that at 5am in the morning changed from a quiet journey through the night into a commuter train, guys in suits with briefcases burst into the compartment and pushed all the seats back into the regular sitting configuration, toppling myself and a fellow (female) backpacker onto the floor in a severe state of undress!.

During the summer I took two long Amtrak rides:

The first was from DC to Miami and back (small train, no view, poor service, deluxe sleeping compartment which I would definitely recommend for the extra money as you get a much larger bed, more space, views to both sides of the train, and a private shower).

The second was cross-country from DC to San Francisco (both times changing at Chicago). Outbound was on the Southwest Chief, Chicago-Los Angeles (excellent service and food, great scenery, same kind of two level train as the coast starlight, upstairs rooms have much better views than downstairs). I was supposed to change from the Chief to the Coast Starlight in LA but due to the Chief running more than a few hours late we had to swith to a bus and ended up chasing the chief half way up the coast missing much of the best scenery.

The return to Chicago was on the California Zephyr which was the highlight of the trip, the scenery was amazing leaving California via the Donner Pass, heading through Nevada in a sandstorm, through Utah then spending the best part of a day winding through the rockies. Apart from a 30-minute break in Chicago I was on a train non-stop from 9am on Tuesday (Emeryville, CA) to 4pm on Friday (DC).

I expected to read a lot of books and watch a lot of DVDs but I spent most of my time just staring out of the window.

As you mentioned, the dining cars can get very crowded, the best way to avoid the wait is to go for the earliest dinner sitting or to ask your sleeping car attendant to bring your choice of meal to your sleeping compartment.

I would definitely recommend Amtrak to people who want to do nothing for a couple of days and just watch the world go past, and I am going back on the Zephyr soon to see the snow through the Sierras and the Rockies.

LordMitford-

Thanks for the memories! I too experienced only average service on the New York to Florida trains I rode. The longer western services are where Amtrak really shines, particularly if you purchase a bedroom.

It's worth noting that in the sleeping compartments, an electrical outlet is provided so if you have a laptop for work or DVDs, you won't need extra batteries.

Although all of the long distance routes have their scenic charms, I totally agree with you that the California Zephyr is special. The run through the Rockies and the beautiful Utah desert are done in the daylight and are not to be missed. I think many people are surprised to find how pretty the scenery through Utah is. We have four distinctly different deserts in the American West and Utah's portion of the Great American Basin with its buttes and canyons is truly amongst the more spectacular.

You folks back east are not left wanting in the scenery department either. I think it would make a great weekend trip to ride "The Adirondack" in the spring or fall from New York City to either upstate New York (Get off at Westport, NY, on the shores of Lake Champlain and my favorite town east of the Mississippi) or ride all the way into Montreal. If you're riding between New York/Washington and Chicago, "The Cardinal" takes longer than the Capitol Limited or The Lake Shore Limited but in my opinion offers much nicer scenery. Riding eastbound from Chicago and waking up along the Ohio River in southern Ohio is a real treat! Later, the mountains of West Virginia and Maryland's Cumberland region hold your attention as no book or movie ever could.

You mentioned being on the train from Tuesday to Friday. Back in 1984, I boarded the night train in Oaxaca, Mexico on my way to Havre, Montana. I connected in Mexico City to the northbound train to Juarez, then crossed the border to El Paso and hooked up with the Sunset Limited in Los Angeles. From there, I rode the Coast Starlight up to Portland and connected to the Empire Builder through the Columbia River gorge and Glacier National Park into Havre. In all, seven straight days aboard trains though I had some longer layovers at connecting points. Over the course of that journey, I met some great people, had an unintended adventure between Juarez and El Paso and saw this continent like I never would have had I flown.

All aboard!


[This message has been edited by Seat 2A (edited 01-27-2002).]

Thanks Seat 2A for the trip report. I love taking the train. The equip west of Chicago is by far better on average than that on the eastern routes although the new Viewliner sleeper cars are quite nice.
I agree with greggwiggins, the Empire Builder route offers some amazing views especially from the dome cafe car. I spent one Christmas at the Isaac Walton Inn in Glacier National Park. It offers great breakfasts and amazing cross country skiing.
Being able to walk around (no drink carts to block the way and no seatbelt signs) and watch some of the best views in America roll by is much more relaxing than any flight I have taken. Well perhaps that is the case because I have yet to fly upfront.

Regardless, I dont know what is worse, a 3 hour airline delay or a 1+ day train ride with a FROZEN KITCHEN. KFC and wine from Fargo, ND for New Year´s eve wasnt my idea of a New Year´s party. At least on the train we could get off and buy something for ourselves and for those chain smokers, have a smoke!

Amtrak travel out west is a must especially for those of us who spend so much time in tin cans whipping across this beautiful planet at 40,000 ft. Flying is quick and convenient but the ambiance of a train is unmatched.

Nice report.

It formatted just fine for me. Maybe I missed the long line that caused problems??

Anyway, one of these days I would like to take a long distance train, just for the experience. I understand Canada has a nice one that runcs from Vancouver to Toronto.

You can see good stuff by air too. The key is low and slow.

jsmeeker - I took the train ride from Toronto to Vancouver on Via Rail back in 1995 and must say it was a very memorable ride. Take it if you can and treat yourself to a sleeper. We had to rough it in coach but it was still a lot of fun.

Excellent report. I have never ridden the California Zephyr but been in it, as it's at a museum in Miami now! Great place to visit if you're down this way!

I am planning a trip from Florida to Montana via Philly or Chicago. A bedroom is fairly expensive but it's a once-in-a-lifetime journey. The "getting there is half the fun" thing like flying used to be.

Any recommendations from RR's here? Does any other airline do this same thing with Amtrak? I have many unused CO, and plenty and growing AA miles.