You'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're keen to spend 20 hours marveling at the endless ocean of corn blanketing Iowa and Nebraska.
43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
41–50 of 267 posts
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#42I think I recognize that section of Chicago's train station from my favorite scene of all time. That shootout scene from the movie The Untouchables. Correct me if I am wrong.
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#43This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…
> I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience
Your whole comment brought back so many great memories for me, but this hits the nail on the head. I've only done one long train ride but the experience was so great that I'm eager to do it again. Being able to take a shower and lie down at night was a game changer - I slept so well. For me it was sort of a working trip in that I brought my laptop and did some emailing and light development, but I spent way more time just looking out the window and relaxing.
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#44Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#45Are these niche Amtrak routes profitable or just political pork necessary to get politicians on board with funding Amtrak?
I wouldn’t call them niche, but no, the long distance routes are not profitable and never will be. They were introduce by the Rail Passenger Service act of 1970, and probably were initially requested, for better or worse, to serve as political pork for Amtrak funding as they serve rural communities as well as tourists. One could also argue that Amtrak is kept hostage, and can never offer high quality service (prior to the infrastructure bill) as it needs to bleed money into these routes.
However I think it is a mistake to focus on profitability here. These trains are a public utility, and should be treated as such. We are spending way more money into maintaining the super inefficient transportation system of private automobiles, and you are paying for it even if you don’t own a car your self, that is both thorough direct taxes, but also in increased property/rent prices to accommodate parking, or with the climate disaster.
Ideally I wouldn’t mind Amtrak canceling most of these routes if they were replaced by something better.
I think many shorter but well connected routes throughout these corridors would be better (I mean, one train a day between Seattle and Spokane is not enough). For example, if the Coast Starlight had it’s infrastructure upgraded, tracks straightened with overhead electrical wires, would interline with future Cascadia High Speed Rail to Eugene, run through Medford (as opposed to Klamath Falls) and finally stop in Sacramento where you could transfer to the future California High Speed Rail if you wanted to continue to LA or the Capitol Corridor to San Francisco. This would be way better then a single Coast Starlight train a day between Seattle and LA in 36 hours.
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#46Are these niche Amtrak routes profitable or just political pork necessary to get politicians on board with funding Amtrak?
They are not profitable. Like the US Postal Service, Amtrak has a mandate to serve smaller towns. Which means they have to maintain a station and local staff in each to service the typical 2-4 trains a day. Also, since Amtrak doesn't own the tracks outside the Northeast, they have to pay railroads like Union Pacific & BNSF for the privilege.
The Northeastern Corridor is their most profitable section, as the ridership is much higher and they own their own tracks.
What could they do to become profitable? Not sure. Assuming they magically got their own set of tracks for free, they then wouldn't have to pay the railroads for using theirs. But they'd have to pay to maintain all that right-of-way (tracks, bridges, tunnels, signals, etc.) At least they'd be on time though (not blocked by massively long freight trains like they are today).
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would totally pay a +30% add on to any train ticket to add a cool murder mystery to my ride.
If the results for "murder mystery train ride" are anything to go by, it seems like every local scenic railroad offers this.
pssst I know a way to double the indemnity
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#48This past summer, I took the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Monterey with my wife and kids. I loved it. It's hard to convey how different it is from flying. Whenever I fly somewhere, especially these days when flying is such a miserable cramped experience, I always feel like my vacation starts after I endure the entire airport + plane experience. The whole travel part is in the same "chore" bucket as packing, findin…
Your writing reminded me of this music video. The artist noted how during the pandemic he was captivated by train videos (like the first person videos of city walks/rides):
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#49For those of you interested in Amtrak sleeper cars, reserve early, and expect to pay the highest fares on the in-demand, scenic routes. Amtrak'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't be cancelled if equipment is scarc…
Coach is also surprisingly cozy. Wide seats, plenty of leg room. 30-40 hours in a coach like Amtrak‘s is nothing to complain about.
Can confirm, I spent that long in a coach seat on the California Zephyr from Chicago to Reno. I wouldn't exactly call it world-class comfort to sleep under such conditions, and I wouldn't recommend it to someone with a bad back, but I've slept in far worse (but then again, I'm a weirdo).
Re: 43 Hours on the Amtrak Southwest Chief
#50So, 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…
[deleted]