# The Coast Starlight, LA-Portland



## D.P. Roberts (Jun 23, 2008)

Note: I’m going to write this trip report in a somewhat different format than most others I’ve read. I’ve noticed that many people on this forum are interested in learning about specific aspects of train travel – the food, the sleepers, scenery, etc. So, I’m going to organize this report by topic, in case anyone wants to skip to their favorite parts. I apologize for the length, but I wanted to cover a lot of issues that “first timers” might be interested in.

Chronology and General Impressions

Our trip started at the train station in San Juan Capistrano, California. SNC is about an hour and a half south of Los Angeles, so we would be taking the Surfliner north to LAUS. We’d previously taken the Surfliner from SNC down to San Diego, just to get a taste of what a train trip might be like. We enjoyed the 2-3 hour trip from SNC-San Diego, so this year we thought we’d finally “take the plunge” on a long distance trip.

Boarding the train in SNC was vastly different than the plane trip I had taken just a few days previously. No security to go through, and the train station was only a few minutes’ drive from my parents’ house where we had been staying. We drove down to the station, waited just a few minutes in the historic mission area, and then hopped on the train. No stress, no hassles, no endless waits in uncomfortable airports.

The trip to LA was uneventful, but the scenery in downtown LA was certainly lacking. The Surfliner (and the first hour north out of LAUS on the Coast Starlight) passes through an endless series of warehouses, salvage yards, and graffiti-covered walls. I definitely wouldn’t take this portion of the Surfliner just for fun, but it would be better than being stuck in traffic on the I-5.

After arriving at LAUS, we had about an hour before the Coast Starlight started boarding. We had been through LAUS before (on the Metro train to the Burbank airport), but we hadn’t had time to explore the station- we went from the Surfliner’s track straight to the Metro track. This time, I’m glad we had a chance to look around – LAUS is a beautiful station. There’s a huge, high-ceilinged waiting room, covered in wood paneling and filled with big wooden chairs. Outside are several courtyards, filled with flowers and a fountain. We were able to spend some time wandering around outside taking pictures and enjoying the weather. Again, the train station was much nicer than an airport waiting area.

Shortly after our arrival at the station, we were greeted by an Amtrak employee who was looking for Coast Starlight sleeping car passengers. He soon escorted us to a special Coast Starlight waiting area (formerly the Traxx lounge). This was a small bar with several flat screen TVs. Honestly, I preferred the main waiting room- we would have gone back out, but we didn’t want to miss the boarding announcement.

The time came to board the train, so we made our way out to the tracks. George, our sleeping car attendant, promptly directed us to our roomette. My first impression was typical for a first-timer – I couldn’t believe how small our room was! I soon realized that it wasn’t the size of the room itself that surprised me; it was the “closed off” nature of the sleeping car. All the train cars I had traveled on previously had been coach cars, which have open views in all directions: for example, you can see almost 80 feet of open train car in front of you if you’re sitting in the back of a coach car. In a sleeper, you can’t see more than a few feet in any direction, and the whole car is a maze of small rooms and corridors. This feeling slowly went away over the course of the trip – in fact, I soon began to prefer our cozy, private roomette to the public spaces.

This is not to say we didn’t want to get out of the train after a while. I took advantage of every opportunity to get off the train at stops. I usually spent this time taking pictures, walking/jogging the length of the train, or chatting with the crew & fellow passengers. I’m a typical American couch potato, but I must say that traveling by train was more “sedentary” than I expected. Our trip to Portland took about 30 hours each way, and my wife and I both decided that a 2-day trip would be the most we’d ever want to spend on a train. We really enjoyed both legs of the trip, but I think both of us would get bored & restless if we had to spend any more time than that onboard.

We arrived in Portland on time, & the Hertz agents we contacted via the yellow phone in the Portland station were quick to pick us up. A few days later, they returned us promptly to the Portland station. We arrived at PDX with plenty of time to spare, so we headed for the Metropolitan lounge. The lounge was pretty crowded, but we were able to find seats. The free drinks & luggage storage were nice. However, it would have been nice to have wifi access, & maybe some tables to sit at. My main complaint was that the windows have permanent curtains on their lower panes, so passengers cannot see out the windows. The lounge basically faced north, so there’s no sun to block – I’m not sure what these curtains accomplished, other than to block the view of the trains. After hanging out in the lounge for a while, I decided to go take some pictures. There were several signs over the doors to the tracks saying "Passengers Only Beyond This Point". Although I was a passenger, I decided to go back out the main doors & around the back to take some photos of the station & the trains (the EB & some cascades trains were on the tracks). While photographing one of the Cascades trains, a woman opened one of the car doors & told me I wasn't allowed to take pictures - I could be arrested for trespassing! Considering that I was standing on a city sidewalk, I can't see how that's remotely true. It's funny that you can take all the pictures you want (and get as close to the trains as you want) in small stops like San Juan Capistrano (or almost all the stops on the Coast Starlight route), but the big stations treat you like a potential terrorist.

Shortly after leaving the Portland station, our train went into an emergency stop. I had read enough on this forum to know that the engineers scream to a halt without good reason, so I was concerned. It didn’t feel like we had hit anything, but the conductor soon came over the PA to tell us that we had hit some “debris” on the track. The railfans onboard who had scanners soon told us that we had hit a homeless person. We later got conflicting reports – some said we had hit a homeless person, others said we had only hit his “camp” of stuff. An ambulance soon came, and eventually the victim was taken off in an ambulance. The consensus was that the homeless person was camping too close to the track – after a series of blasts on the horn, the engineer realized that the train was going to come uncomfortably close (at this point the train tracks were only about 10 feet from a warehouse wall, & several homeless people had created a camp along the wall). Aside from the paramedics, there was also a fire truck, several police cars, Amtrak representatives, and a bunch of other officials. Despite all of that, we were on our way within an hour. Unfortunately, we never gained that hour back, and arrived in LA an hour late the next day. Fortunately, they held the southbound Surfliner that night, & we made it back to San Juan Capistrano only 15 minutes late. Considering that we had been on two trips totaling four days, I was impressed that we arrived at our final destination within a few minutes of our scheduled time.

FOOD

Overall, I was impressed with Amtrak’s food. The options were limited, but the quality was pretty good, at least for me. I’d rate it well above fast food, but below your typical chain (like Outback or Applebee’s). Amtrak allegedly rotates through its menus, but we had the same options almost every day on both trips. On the first trip, the lunch option was turkey & gravy over biscuits, with mashed potatoes. I thought this was probably my favorite meal. For dinner I tried the roast chicken, which was okay. I had the railroad French toast for breakfast the next morning, which I didn’t enjoy as much as I had hoped – it tasted “warmed up” rather than freshly made. The next lunch was a burger, which also tasted premade. On the return trip, the French toast was a little better, but the burger was the same. The lasagna was very good – I had it both nights on the southbound trip. They allowed me to make a substitution & I added in the mashed potatoes I had really enjoyed from the first lunch – mashed potatoes and lasagna may sound like a weird combination, but they were two of the best foods onboard & they made for a very tasty dinner. Overall, I would say that the simplified dining service has definitely harmed the quality of food for some meals, but others were quite good.

The community seating worked fairly well. We met people from all walks of life, & from all over the world. In fact, I think about half of our meals were with people from outside the U.S. This led to some interesting conversations. On the whole, though, I’d say I prefer not to dine with strangers – I’d just rather eat with people I choose, rather than random strangers (which is probably why “community seating” isn’t practiced in any restaurants). Often times I wanted to talk to my wife about something I saw outside the window, & felt obligated to steer the conversation in a more open direction. While one or two people were talkative, most people were content to eat their meals basically in a “sociable silence”.

SLEEPING CAR

As I mentioned before, we were initially somewhat shocked at the size of our roomette. After settling in, though, we quickly began to appreciate all the nice little features. For example, Amtrak provides a box of tissues, bottled water, sparkling cider, newspapers, etc. We had a schedule, but not a route guide. I had printed several route guides of my own, but I would think Amtrak would include one in your room.

Our room was quite comfortable during the daytime. We quickly figured out that my wife likes to travel facing backward, while I like to face forward. I liked the seat next to the hanging storage area, while my wife preferred the seat by the steps. We were both relatively comfortable – much more so than when traveling by plane, even in first class (which we’ve done on exactly one occasion, when “bumped” into it by a cancelled flight). The air & lights worked, but the intercom/music system did not (it would not shut off on the northbound leg & would not turn on for the southbound leg, no matter which channel or volume level we set it to). Our car was also pretty worn out – the carpet was threadbare and worn, whole car looked well used. Considering that we were taking the Coast Starlight at the beginning of its relaunch, I was hoping we would have the remade cars with the blue & wood trim. However, none of the cars were refurbished, on either trip. My only real complaint is that the armrests are not padded, which is probably the case in the refurbished cars too.

Our roomette was “cozy” but comfortable at night. I am extremely prone to motion sickness, & was quite worried that I would get sick if I tried to lie down and/or couldn’t look out a window. I was especially concerned about trying to sleep in the upper bunk, which is basically coffin-sized and has no window. However, sleeping did not bother me at all – in fact, I found the rocking of the train quite soothing. I occasionally got queasy if I tried to read a book for too long without looking out a window, but that’s it.

During the last hour of the second leg of our trip (the last bit before we arrived in LA), I took the opportunity to investigate the bedrooms. They were almost all empty, so I figured that our car attendant, Robin, wouldn’t mind. When she saw me sitting in one of the bedrooms, she showed me around the bedroom and even let me look at the family & handicapped rooms downstairs. My wife and I sat in the bedroom for quite a while, trying to get the feel of it – although we’ll probably never be able to afford it, it would be fun to splurge on a bedroom. In particular, I’d love to have the views out both sides of the train if we went through scenic areas of Colorado or Montana.

PACIFIC PARLOUR CAR

We had a PPC on both legs of our trip. I know that many people are big fans of the PPC, but I was not impressed. First of all, the car is in use as a diner for most of the daylight hours, which means that the dining tables are taken. This leaves only the two curvy “settees” and the eight swivel chairs available. While the swivel chairs were comfortable and the view was great, I noticed that the same people were camped out in these seats for almost the entire trip, on both legs of our journey. I think we were able to get seats together on only one occasion. I really think the PPC attendant needs to do something about these “campers”. I can see spending an hour or two there enjoying the view, but hogging these seats for days on end is just rude.

I have a suggestion for Amtrak – take the movie theater seats out of the lower level, & replace them with swivel seats. You could still sit there to watch movies at night, but it would provide some necessary extra seating during the day. Alternately, I’d be perfectly happy with a Sightseer lounge as a substitution. A Sightseer car with the PPC’s seats would be just about perfect in my book.

On the whole, these campers pretty much ruined the PPC car for me. So, I really won’t mind if Amtrak decides to pull these cars out of service.

SCENERY

I won’t go into too much detail here, as the scenery on the CS is already covered in a lot of different places. The only thing that really surprised me was how much the “quality” of the scenery made a difference to me throughout the trip. When traveling through beautiful scenery – like the coast of Southern California, or the mountains in southern Oregon – I was perfectly content, & felt like I could ride the trains for days. When the scenery was ugly or boring – for example, the urban areas around Oakland – I was bored & wanted off the train. My take-home lesson from this is that I really ought to plan my future train trips around the scenery. For example, as much as I’d like to take the Empire Builder or California Zephyr across the country, I think the stretches through Nebraska, Iowa, etc. would leave me bored out of my skull.

SERVICE

This is an area that truly surprised me. From what I read on the forums, I had the impression that Amtrak had an equal number of good employees and “bad apples”. From what I experienced, the Coast Starlight must have all the good ones. Our sleeping car attendants, George and Robin, both did an outstanding job. Gus, the dining car attendant on the northbound trip, was hilarious & kept the car running smoothly. All of the other personnel were courteous and helpful. When I finally get done with this blog – and eventually post some pictures online – I plan on writing a letter to Amtrak, letting them know about the outstanding service we received on this train


----------



## caravanman (Jun 23, 2008)

Well done on an interesting and informative report.. It will certainly give a good idea of what to expect to "first timers" too.

For myself, I particularly enjoy the community meal seating on Amtrak, it gives a chance to get to know people a little. For that reason too, I enjoy coach seating, as one becomes part of a (slightly smelly!) travelling community after a few days on a long distance train.

Ed B)


----------



## Steve4031 (Jun 23, 2008)

This was an excellent, honest report. It would gives a clear idea of what to expect. I would recommend taking the CZ from Emeryville to Denver. You are correct that the scenery east of Denver would not be that exciting for you based on your reactions to the scenery you saw on the coast starlight. However, the mountain scenery on this route makes it one of the best on the Amtrak system. In my mind the Coast Starlight and thee CZ are the top two Amtrak routes for scenery. I hope you try the zephyr.


----------



## Cascadia (Jun 23, 2008)

Thanks for your report! I like the way you organized it by topic instead of chronologically, that was a good way to do it. I enjoyed reading it and am glad you had a good trip.


----------



## JackGraham (Jun 25, 2008)

D.P. Roberts said:


> Note: I’m going to write this trip report in a somewhat different format than most others I’ve read. I’ve noticed that many people on this forum are interested in learning about specific aspects of train travel – the food, the sleepers, scenery, etc. So, I’m going to organize this report by topic, in case anyone wants to skip to their favorite parts. I apologize for the length, but I wanted to cover a lot of issues that “first timers” might be interested in.



Great report, thanks! And I really appreciate the format, I'm printing it out to show my SO before we go on our first trip, also on the Coast Starlight.

Bummer about the campers in the PPC. Isn't it only open to sleeper car people? I would think they'd go back to their rooms occasionally... I figure I'll hang out there for a few hours, maybe through Vandenberg, but not the whole trip, otherwise why get a room?

And don't get me started about the coach people on the Surfliner cramming into the cafe and staying there the whole time. I think in approximately 50 trips in the last year, I've gotten a table to eat my meal at once. And I'm willing to share.


----------

