When I told people (many of them because I was so excited) that I was taking a train from LA to Portland, a handful reflected my enthusiasm. The remaining majority responded with something along the lines of, “Oh! How long does that take? Thirty hours? Why?!”
Partly because I’m a climate reporter who will try just about any environmentally-friendly alternative once.
Partly because I am the kind of person who loves to marvel at the wonders of public infrastructure.
Partly because the child inside of me wanted to know what it was like to sleep while chugga-chugging in one of those little bunk cot “roomettes.”
Some might choose to spend their saved money on a roundtrip flight to Europe. But for me: a one-way ticket to Portland that takes twice as long (and comes with complimentary French toast).
Hour 1
Fun fact: If you book the wrong departure location and miss your train in, say, Downtown Los Angeles, you can just get on at the next station, which, in this case, is Van Nuys! Photo by Caleigh Wells/KCRW
Once I get over the suspiciously simple security screening process (there is none), I’m brimming with excitement. My husband, Austin Frank, is brimming with good-sported patience.
“Just 30 hours to go,” he repeats, as if the mantra wills the train to move faster.
I almost immediately head to the observation car, which has floor-to-ceiling windows on both sides and two lines of chairs facing out for optimal vista viewing. There is exactly one chair left, next to a Seattle-bound woman named Lois Kalinsky. We talk for more than an hour.
A major discovery on trains: Virtually every passenger is in a great mood and really, really chatty.
Kalinsky stopped flying in 2019 when her vertigo precluded air travel. She’s sworn by Amtrak ever since.
“I love trains. I think they’re very relaxing,” she says. “Union Station, we just walked to the end of the terminal, turned left, took an elevator up, and we were in a lounge. They took our suitcases, they drove us to the train. No TSA, no stress, nice lounge. It was just easy.”
Hour 3
Passengers quiet their conversations to listen to Ed Leska deliver history and fun facts as the Coast Starlight travels through the Central Coast. Photo by Caleigh Wells/KCRW
By the time we get to Santa Barbara, a volunteer with the National Park Service steps onboard. Ed Leska shares history and fun facts about the world whizzing by, as part of a program called Trails and Rails. He hooks up a microphone and a couple bluetooth speakers, and wanders up and down the aisle of the observation car, pointing to important landmarks and landscapes outside. He’s been doing this since 1998.
“At the beginning, I wasn't sure why I wanted to do it, except you get to ride the train, and you get to see all this stuff,” he says. “And then you find out that there are people here … from Indonesia, from Singapore, from New Zealand.”
He dresses the part too, sporting a locomotive belt buckle, an Amtrak suitcase pin, a backpack adorned with park patches, a fun fact-filled notebook, and the classic green jacket and khaki uniform of the Park Service.
At 83 years old, Ed Leska says his goal is to beat his now-retired partner’s record, who did the job until he was 95. Photo by Caleigh Wells/KCRW
Listening to Leska and staring wistfully out the window as if put there by Amtrak’s PR team is Nathan Udall. He’s on his way to Oakland for a family reunion. He’s here for the vibes.
“On a road, they build up all the infrastructure around it. Whereas on a train, you're surrounded by nature on both sides. You're really out there and I love that aspect of it,” he says.
Next to him are a pair of sisters, Carrie Ray and Elisa Taylor of San Bernardino County, on their way to visit their uncle in Eugene. They were furiously snapping pictures of everything Leska was teaching them about, especially once they passed a familiar sight.
“I was taking pictures for my friends that I’ve camped with at that camp ground so I was like, ‘Oh my god, there it is!’” Ray says.
Meeting the passengers, it’s easier to understand why train trips across California sell out regularly this time of year. These are the people who keep Amtrak on the West Coast alive. What they all have in common is time.
Hour 12
The train is peaceful during quiet hours, apart from one announcement admonishing parents for letting their children wander the train unattended. Photo courtesy of Austin Frank.
Leska wraps up his tour in San Luis Obispo, and makes it back home to Goleta after doing the exact same spiel on the Amtrak train going the other direction. Another Trails and Rails duo provides some entertainment from Paso Robles up into the Bay Area. Once they leave, the observation car is quiet, except for the few people waiting to watch the sunset as we pass through Oakland.
Dining parties of two or fewer get paired with strangers, so my husband and I get lots of small talk opportunities. Our lunch partner is a grandmother named Mary from Washington who takes the train to cut down her carbon footprint. Our dinner partner is a young woman whose name I never caught. She watched a movie on her phone for the whole meal. Okay, so not everyone is chatty.
Hour 20
Amtrak’s “signature” French toast is made even more decadent by whipped cream donations from breakfast dining partners Lois and Shelley. Photo by Caleigh Wells/KCRW
Day two is when harsh realities of Amtrak set in: On-time arrivals are far from guaranteed. We wake up to learn that we fell an hour behind schedule overnight because of freight train interference.
Ed Leska told me earlier that the delays cost Trails and Rails some volunteers for the educational program he’s part of. For instance, he’s supposed to get home at 7 p.m., but on bad days, it takes until the wee hours of the morning.
“That's why we lost some people. Who's going to feed the cat?” he says.
Amtrak wouldn’t comment for this story, but its website says on this train from LA to Seattle, the performance is pretty average – 58% of passengers arrive on time.
Plus, half the time, we are locomoting slower than the cars.
Hour 30
As our train (the Coast Starlight) pulls into the station, another train (the Empire Builder) is ready to leave for Chicago. Photo by Caleigh Wells/KCRW
I arrive in Portland an hour late (shoutout to my family for waiting in the parking lot). It seems pretty clear why Amtrak has never turned a profit in its 53-year history.
Sean Jeans-Gail, a Portlander who lives along the route, says profit isn’t the point. He is vice president of policy at a nonprofit called the Rail Passengers Association.
“I know that highways don't make a profit, and in fact … airports are heavily supported through government grants,” he says. The postal service and most public transit systems don’t make money either, he points out. They are public utilities.
Plus, as my conductor told me, there are lots of small towns where Amtrak is the only transportation available. Jeans-Gail says if those routes disappear, it becomes an equity issue.
“When you disinvest in passenger rail,” he says, “You will just leave a lot of smaller communities in the dust and they'll be disconnected. And they'll rot on the vine.”
For those of us in the big cities, Amtrak is less of a lifeline and more of a leisure activity. And I’d do it again. Pulling into Portland, I was already eyeing the train to Chicago for my next big trip.