Riding the Rails of Amtrak: It’s Not Like The Movies

Boarding the train to Vancouver. Seattle, WA. Photo: Rachel King. July 31, 2009

Forget any preconceptions you’ve had about what it’s like to be a passenger on a long-distance Amtrak train. There’s no romance and glamour reminiscent of an old Western, and there’s no one with the charm of Cary Grant on board. A 22-hour ride from Oakland to Seattle (plus another four from Seattle to Vancouver) drummed it into my brain (and hopefully into the brains of everyone on board) that this country needs to hop on the high-speed rail bandwagon immediately.

First, there’s the cost of a ride. If a 22-hour, one-way ride is going to cost over $150 a person for just a seat, not even a sleeping car (versus the $69 airfare for the two-hour ride from Seattle to SFO when we returned), there better be an experience to remember. Unfortunately, there is little to be remembered (fondly) by the Amtrak experience. A great train robbery would have given us something more to do. The scenery would be the highlight of any ride, and luckily it was clear all up the coast during our ride.

Inside the lounge car. Amtrak Coast Starlight. Photo: Rachel King. July 29, 2009.

Then, there are the amenities. While there was air-conditioning on board, there is little circulation in the coach passenger cars, thus, the less time spent there the better. After sleeping in my seat for no more than six hours, I spent most of my time in the lounge car, reading a stack of magazines while drifting by the farmlands of Oregon and Columbia River into Washington. And to get the real, full experience of what it is to travel by train, we had lunch in the dining car. While the car is very clean, it’s cramped. And unless there is a party of 3 or more, you will be sharing your table with some new friends. We were lucky that we met some friendly travelers, but it might not always be so amiable.

Unless you brought a laptop/portable DVD player for movies, a deck of cards or even just a book, there isn’t all that much else to do. I did have the opportunity to sign up for a wine tasting. Tickets are usually only reserved for those in sleeping cars, but not enough people signed up, thus the extra tickets were opened up to the entire train for $10 each. While I wasn’t very impressed with the cheese, I did really enjoy sampling wines from Washington’s wine country, which doesn’t get quite the same amount of attention that Napa Valley enjoys.

Finally, there’s just the issue of necessary upgrades. The cars themselves are rickety and a far cry from the plush and futuristic cars of European trains. I am not one to trash all things American in favor of those things European, but I do think our country can do better if we commit to it. If the train ever picked up the pace just slightly (I overheard a few of the Amtrak conductors saying the train couldn’t go over 50 MPH, but I’m not sure if that was due to the extreme heat outside or not), the cars would slam from one side to the other suddenly. It’s almost a miracle we didn’t derail at certain points. But most of the time, I’m pretty sure a horse and buggy would have moved faster.

While I don’t regret riding Amtrak, as I think it is something any good American traveler should do at least once, I don’t think I’ll be riding again until those promised funds from President Obama really make a difference, whenever that might be.