# 'Coast Starlight': Los Angeles, California to Portland, Oregon



## unitedstatesfan (Oct 7, 2016)

My August 2016 trip on 'Coast Starlight' from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon was an opportunity to see if things had changed since my previous trip about 15 years ago.

I enjoyed a brief time in the Amtrak lounge, which would be better if it served free alcohol (not that this is required at 0930 hours, but it would be for a night time departure).

I then chose to walk to the platform where at about 0940 the 'Coast Starlight' docked.

The consist was locos 41 and 505 heading 61051 (baggage) then sleepers 39019 (transition car)-32041-32075-32011 followed by lounge 33041 and diner 38055 then business class sitter 34512, lounge 33025 and finally 34064-34037-34039 bringing up the rear as the sitting cars.

I settled into my roomette that unfortunately was on the east side so it would lack views of the Pacific Ocean, but that was easily solved with a walk to the observation car.

Departure was at 1011, one minute late. At Van Nuys (1037-39), there was a car train with HLEX 1835 and 2103 heading the consist.

At MP439.4 we stopped in a siding to cross a southbound Amtrak train: this took 18 minutes, so the Simi Valley stop where seven passengers boarded was from 1120 to 1125, 14 minutes late.

By Oxnard we were 16 minutes late. After a six minute stop at Santa Barbara (1244 to 1250), I enjoyed the included lunch in the diner that was an excellent beef burger with chips, accompanied by a very pleasant Sierra Nevada pale ale (fairly expensive at US$7.50 for the beer, which was what in Australia we'd call a stubbie - a bottled beer of about 330 to 375 ml).

It was most enjoyable to watch the Pacific Ocean even if I did not think that the beaches were up to the high, white sand standards of those in Philippines. At times there were huge numbers of recreational vehicles parked in parking bays. The RVs were mammoth - only in America!

The San Luis Obispo stop was from 1529 to 1545 with an Australian orange flowering gum being noted in all its finery on the main platform.

Here we crossed the southbound 'Coast Starlight', locos 176 and 150 heading another impressive 11 car consist. It departed at 1543, 23 minutes behind schedule.

i walked through the sitting cars and found 130 passengers in total in the sitters, so they were by no means full but at least there were not just 20 people in the three sitters.

Due to a late running CalTrain, we then stopped at Gilroy for 19 minutes (1930 to 1949) making the San Jose stop 2020 to 2033 and Oakland 2126 to 2139.

Next morning I awoke briefly to note the train pulling out of Sacramento at 0015 hours so at least we were not badly delayed at this station, which from observation is often a constraint on punctuality for train number 14.

At Chico (0145 to 0155, a total of two stops), the conductor had to direct a passenger who was unable to get over a fence to use the correct entrance to the platform.

At 0700 I showered with the water thankfully being hot - an important morning ritual for Australians that I am not sure is followed by all other nationalities - but unfortunately one loco was having problems so we stopped south of Klamath Falls from 0720 to 0738: thankfully the engineers solved the problem, so the conductor informed me.

The Klamath Falls stop was from 0800 to 0817 with many passengers stretching their legs. The station ('depot' in USA-speak) was in the throes of being renovated.

I had bacon and other goodies for breakfast upon departure and spoke with a young female management consultant from London, United Kingdom who had booked her sleeper at short notice after endeavouring to drive elsewhere in the USA and allegedly being almost run off the road by a recreational vehicle driver. And little old me thought that all RV drivers were docile individuals who motored along at a slow 80 kilometres an hour (50mph)!

The scenery was pleasant with mountains visible.

We eventually arrived Portland, Oregon at 1526, one minute late where I detrained.

It was easy to sleep in the roomette.

While the Amtrak monthly performance report available under 'reports' on its website indicates that patronage on 'Coast Starlight' fell in August 2016 compared with August 2015, I thought the number of travellers was very good.

Many passengers on board expressed satisfaction with Amtrak: a number were repeat riders.

Perhaps one of Amtrak's biggest problems is that those who have never ridden it are the most hyper critical.

The 'Coast Starlight' is not fast, but it is an excellent way to see great scenery and enjoy the pleasure of a sleeping car plus dining car meals. Book at least three months in advance for the cheapest fare bucket.


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## OlympianHiawatha (Oct 7, 2016)

Great report for a great train. And it sounds like you had a Sightseer Lounge subbing for the usual Pacific Parlour Car which is a major downgrade in most folks' opinion. Many of us would be interested to hear your experiences of riding any of the amazing Australian trains.


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## oregon pioneer (Oct 7, 2016)

Thanks for a good report! I am glad to hear the K Falls depot is being renovated. It's a nice little classic station building.


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## unitedstatesfan (Oct 7, 2016)

OlympianHiawatha, yes, I omitted to mention that apparently 'my' Pacific Parlour car was in the shops for repairs.

I agree that this is a 'major downgrade' as I had been looking forward to experiencing those much discussed lounge chairs.

The southbound 'Coast Starlight' that I saw mid afternoon on the first day had a PP car, so I was simply unlucky.

I couldn't agree more - the 'Coast Starlight' is indeed a great train.

Sure, the rollingstock is ageing, but I had a pretty good sleep in the roomette (the bed being extremely comfortable), the dining car meals - especially the terrific, juicy steak that I also forgot to mention above - were quite good and the staff friendly, although my attendant was not as good as the dining car staff or the lounge car gentleman.

We all know that Amtrak is not a high speed rail operator in the Japanese, European, Taiwanese, South Korean or mainland Chinese way, but its trains are underrated and very, very worthy of a trip.

It was also pleasing to note that the sleepers were almost booked out, and that many were using the sitters, bearing in mind that 'Coast Starlight' has many 'on/offs' at intermediate stations: far from everyone travels the whole Los Angeles - Seattle route in one hit.

Far superior to flying if you have the time as I did to see a part of the USA at surface level!


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## ParanoidAndroid (Oct 7, 2016)

I really wish they got that PPC rolling again. My trip (August 7-8) also didn't have the Pacific Parlour Car, and the southbound #11 had a PPC (we passed it on the hills north of SLO) but I got to see Klamath Falls Depot without construction IIRC. I believe what you call "sitters" is "coach"?

Also nice that your train was 6 mins early (I believe it's scheduled to arrive at 15:32, not 15:25), while mine was almost 2 hrs late. But the benefit of that was being able to look at Mt. Shasta while eating!

RVs are, what I thought, slow. In my mind, they're the ones that drive down CA Route 1 at 40 (64 km/h) mph and slowing every down, while the speed limit is 55 (88~89 km/h) even through the coastal sections. Not to mention the other cars that do 40 through there too.

I'm also honestly amazed that anyone took the time to look at the flowers at an Amtrak stop though!

And yeah, Amtrak food is expensive in general (think $4 bottles of water at ball games and county fairs, just not as worse). You could have taken your own alcohol in the sleepers, though.


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## unitedstatesfan (Oct 8, 2016)

OlympianHiawatha, thank you - in time, I may post a trip report re the occasional Australian train, but much of the time my focus is on overseas travel.

maxbuskirk, could not agree more about the PPC. I suspect mine was the only one of the 'Coast Starlight' sets not to have one in its consist. The sightseer lounge is pleasant, but not special.

Apologies, yes, #14 is due at Portland at 1532 as you suggest.

As an aside, an Australian flowering gum (eucalypt) is not a 'flower' - it is a medium sized tree whose nectar-filled flowers can range from white to red to crimson to orange - they are beautiful, but do not really belong in California. It's a shame that foreign plants and trees were introduced, mostly in the case of the Australian ones by some well meaning botanists in the 1930s I gather.

And yes, the 'sitters' or 'sitting cars' are what (only) the USA calls 'coach.' In my country we would also call them economy class cars. They do however offer excellent legroom in the USA: only a small number of trains in my country have had similar legroom, and these have been passenger cars modelled on American designs.

I was expecting the steak in the diner on Amtrak to be tough and rather poor but was pleasantly surprised to find my assumption was completely incorrect, so well done (excuse the poor pun).


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## TinCan782 (Oct 8, 2016)

Nice report. Did the same trip on Oct 5-6 LAX to PDX in the 1430 sleeper, bedroom "D". One zone AGR redemption. We had the PPC and a pretty good run arriving in PDX 20 minutes early.


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## zephyr17 (Oct 11, 2016)

The PPCs are often MIA, it isn't unusual to have one subbed out. You think the rest of the train is old? The PPCs date from 1956, and are often out of service for one reason or another. I don't expect to see them around too many more years.


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