Amtrak Coast Starlight Train Journey LA To Seattle June 2025 UPDATED Day 2 and Arrival at Seattle

[disneedee]

We arrived on time at 7.30pm, which for Amtrak is amazing.

FOR SURE!!

 

[Bad Pink Tink 2.0]

We arrived on time at 7.30pm, which for Amtrak is amazing.

FOR SURE!!

I was in my hotel room by 8.00pm , which I did not expect at all

 

[citruscurtis]

The route up Cachuma Pass was also amazing and something else you can't see any other way.

Truly amazing truly amazing... I have boarded 9 trips and this is still the highlight of my trip:

1. The horseshoe curve is the largest in the world
2. Nine tunnels the most in the shortest stretch of track record

And now the best part... leave your seat and go downstairs and stand at the door window...the sensation of riding a surf board... flying.... skiing... you are the edge of the massive canyon.. looking for deer coyote fox and eventually higher than the hunting raptors and if in spring flowers in your face

 

[bcla]

I've booked the Coast Starlight for (I think) 10 one-way trips. Some of them were just day trips. Some I found an alternate means to get home, such as commuter rail or other public transit.

First time was just me and the kiddo, who I booked for free as an "infant". Let's just say they were a little bit lax on enforcement. The joke I heard from Amtrak conductors was that often they see the same "one year olds" for four years. For those who haven't booked that way, an infant has to be reserved, isn't named on the reservation, and doesn't necessarily get a seat. However, the conductors will know and whenever I booked that I had no issue. If there was room the conductor would block off a seat anyways.

We had some fun in the dining car, although sometimes the lateness of arrival meant that the breakfast hours were over. Our first trip was Richmond, California to San Jose. Got there during breakfast hours and there were no reservations for the dining car.

Some of the day trips were interesting. Did Emeryville to Salinas round trip once by myself. The family was visiting relatives so I was at home alone and wanted to do something. Had about 6 hours in Salinas and visited the Steinbeck Center. After that I didn't really have that much to do but just walked around town, watched a movie, got something to eat, and got home. The trains were more or less on time.

I do remember once I made the mistake of not getting on the train after being confused by a PA announcement of where to wait to board. Another family (heading to LA) missed it too. We ended up talking to an Amtrak employee about what to do and they suggested getting a quick Uber ride to Oakland, where they had something like 30 minutes waiting time. I've been there and it can be longer because that's where the southbound train stocks up on food. I think once it was delayed because of "private varnish" (a private railcar) being attached for the ride to Los Angeles. But in this case the family did that because they were headed to LA and their luggage was checked in. We didn't really care because it was just an excursion trip. I ended up just canceling my reservation and rebooking with a later train-bus trip to Salinas and the Coast Starlight on return. We theoretically only had about 2 hours in Salinas, but then I checked the status of the return trip and it was way delayed. Found out that some train hit someone near LA and they stopped all passenger trains for several hours. So we had time to do a lot of stuff in Salinas, where they had this informal parade of classic cars. Ended up going to the station where it was further delayed. I think it was something like 3.5 hours late.

One time I was just playing around with the Amtrak app and thinking about booking something. Then I saw that with their rewards program (Amtrak Guest Rewards) I could book a bedroom for 0 points. I was thinking what the heck and booked a round trip Emeryville-Salinas. If it was real that would have included breakfast (which was only available for those with rooms after COVID) but I couldn't find an email confirmation for the reservation. Turned out to be a fairly well known bug in the Amtrak reservation system. I posted about it here:

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/bedroom-bookable-for-zero-points.82301/#post-967113

The last time I took the Coast Starlight was actually with the kiddo. It wasn't a day trip per se, but we wanted to go on a fun trip, just the two of us. Emeryville to Santa Barbara on the Coast Starlight, with the return trip via bus and train. The train was about an hour late to Santa Barbara, so we weren't quite sure what we were going to do with maybe 3 hours. It was actually plenty of time but we felt kind of rushed.

It was really odd as I booked it as one round-trip reservation. Typically a bus ride has to be accompanied by a train "segment" because of some law. Several bus operators (like Greyhound) objected to competing with state subsidized transportation, where it's technically "Amtrak California" providing subsidized bus service. The bus was from Santa Barbara to Oakland, followed by a short train ride from Oakland to Emeryville. That didn't really make sense because the bus also stopped in Emeryville. But I guess the programming forced the extra train ride even thought technically it didn't have to include that extra train segment. We just got off in Emeryville and nobody cared.

I've taken alternate means to LA/OC. The Coast Starlight is considerably nicer, but takes a slower path. I've gone south through Bakersfield on the San Joaquin with a bus that connected south - apparently all the way to San Diego. The train had no paid food service at all, with no cafe car because of budget concerns. They did have free snack boxes just lined up on a table. The most common route between the Bay Area and Southern California was the bus to/from Santa Barbara that connected with the Pacific Surfliner. I had to improvise after the 2022 Southwest Airlines meltdown and ended up booking the last ticket for Emeryville-San Luis Obispo-Los Angeles. That was kind of fun. There was heavy traffic and the bus driver skipped the normal meal stop at the McDonald's in King City to make time. We did arrive well before the train. On the train, I asked a conductor if that was considered really crowded, and she said that it the most crowded she'd ever seen it on the day after Christmas.

There are other Amtrak bookable routes along the length of the Coast Starlight route. Amtrak Cascades goes I think as far south as Eugene, Oregon. Some of their trains also got to Vancouver, BC. And they also have some bus services. I think the furthest Amtrak California buses go is Chico, or perhaps Redding? I thought of doing that once to Chico on the way to maybe Portland. But the Coast Starlight arrives in Chico after midnight.

I think one of the more interesting ways the Coast Starlight operates is when Union Pacific is doing maintenance work and the train is routed through the Tehachapi Loop (which skips over a lot of stops). It's usually only used by freight trains. But it's really cool.

 

[bcla]

We arrived on time at 7.30pm, which for Amtrak is amazing.

FOR SURE!!

I've encountered assorted delays on the Coast Starlight. The joke was that it was delayed (typically by freight traffic) and that it was the Coast Star Late. There used to be a train operated by Southern Pacific called the Daylight, which was the companion to the Coast Starlight. It actually started in San Francisco at the site of the current Caltrain commuter rail station. I suppose if Amtrak brought it back in some capacity, they could nickname it the Coast Day Late.

Theoretically dispatch (operated by the freight railroads) is supposed to give priority to passenger rail by law, but in practice they don't typically get it. There have been attempts to fine freight railroads for delays to passenger rail, but the federal government hasn't been able to collect.