Amtrak to Los Angeles

[phins_jazy]

I've never taken Amtrak before but just priced tickets for DH, DD and myself and I was shocked at the price. For the 3 of us it is $252.50 Round trip!! The cheapest I can get even on southwest catching a good sale (92.09 one way) is $687.00 including tax and surcharges!!! That's a saving of $434.50 That could buy a lot of mickey bars!!! What I need are opinions on Amtrak....the good, the bad and the ugly. We wouldn't be in a sleeper car, just a reserved coach seat on a long haul train. The only down side is that we'll have to drive 3.5 hours to catch Amtrak and we'd either have to find long term parking for our car or rent a car each way. Haven't quite worked out all the details yet. Need suggestions. Our trip isn't until Dec so we've got time.

 

[DC7800]

phins_jazy, a lot depends on where you are driving to in order to catch the train. I assume you are somewhere around Amarillo, so you basically have the choice of driving to Las Vegas (New Mexico), Garden City, or even Fort Worth. The first two stations are along the same route, the Chicago-L.A. Southwest Chief, but the Las Vegas stop is closer to L.A. and at a more decent hour (Garden City westbound is around 7 a.m. and eastbound at midnight) for boarding. On the other hand, Amtrak shows long-term parking available at Garden City but nothing at Las Vegas (though such parking is often just spaces around the station anyway, accessible to anyone).

Fort Worth takes a lot longer (long wait in San Antonio for the Orlando section of the train to arrive), so I'd recommend one of the above (or a nearby) location. From the Chief, you can disembark in Fullerton, CA and catch a connecting train on to Anaheim. If you can ever catch the Chief on Amtrak RailSale http://tickets.amtrak.com/Amtrak/ra...geID=main&railSaleFlag=true&externalCall=true the price from Las Vegas is just $33.80 per person one-way.

For some Amtrak trip reports, try:

http://communities.prodigy.net/trains/trips001.htm

or

Trainweb Forms: http://www.railforum.com/cgi-bin/fo...forum=Travel&number=1&DaysPrune=20&LastLogin=

And finally, for some travel tips:

http://communities.prodigy.net/trains/amthints.htm

Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask me any additional questions.

 

[phins_jazy]

DC7800 Thanks for the links. They've got lots of great info. Yup, we're in Amarillo. We're going to drive to ABQ and catch the Chief there. I'm pretty excited about it. I've never traveled by train before. I think it will be a great experience. I do have a question for you. If we were to purchase tickets now at the $252 rate, and the rates happen to go down would we get a credit? Or if ABQ to LAX came up on a rail saver would we be able to cancel our first set of tix and get a different set? Thanks!!