Boston to Los Angeles -- what would be the lowest altitude routes?

[Palmetto]

I read somewhere that Marias Pass is lowest crossing of the Rockies. Perhaps renting a personal oxygen concentrator might help. I travel with one when I fly.

 

[Thirdrail7]

The Sunset has the lowest elevation to the west coast but as Bretton88 mentioned, you still have pockets of high altitude. The highest is close to 4,600 feet. There are other areas where the train is 3000+ and 4000+ feet above sea level.

 

[Triley]

Just a thought about the NYP tunnels...would the pressure changes not be good there either?

It might not be ideal, but he'll only be on the tunnels for a little bit, and though I don't know the actual altitude and pressure of the North River Tunnels, it can't be much more than 203 ft (the maximum depth of the Hudson River), which isn't very significant compared to the 5000 or so foot Paisano Pass. I do wonder what can be worse for a collapsed lung - higher pressure or lower pressure, which might also be a factor here.

Surely being from Brooklyn you've ridden through those tunnels and you know the sudden pressure change is very noticeable.

 

[TinCan782]

Just another bit of elevation info regarding the Sunset Limited, the route is actually below sea level while running along Southern California's Salton Sea. This is usually during darkness for both #1 and #2.

 

[cpotisch]

Just a thought about the NYP tunnels...would the pressure changes not be good there either?

It might not be ideal, but he'll only be on the tunnels for a little bit, and though I don't know the actual altitude and pressure of the North River Tunnels, it can't be much more than 203 ft (the maximum depth of the Hudson River), which isn't very significant compared to the 5000 or so foot Paisano Pass. I do wonder what can be worse for a collapsed lung - higher pressure or lower pressure, which might also be a factor here.

Surely being from Brooklyn you've ridden through those tunnels and you know the sudden pressure change is very noticeable.

It's noticeable, but it's not too bad. As I said, you're only in the tunnels for a very short period of time, so I imagine prolonged relatively high altitude would be more of a concern than that. That said, I know absolutely nothing about collapsed lungs, so I'm likely talking nonsense.

 

[buck1108]

I read somewhere that Marias Pass is lowest crossing of the Rockies. Perhaps renting a personal oxygen concentrator might help. I travel with one when I fly.

Great idea! Here's the Amtrak info page on that:

https://www.amtrak.com/accessible-travel-oxygen-equipment