Train Through California - Coast Starlight

Train to Los Angeles

All Aboard!

Most people whom I told that we were using up a whole day of our holiday on a train from San Francisco to Los Angeles said I was mad to be wasting 10 or more hours where we could easily drive and make it there in five hours, or take the flight, my husband included. But, he very kindly humoured me and went along with it. I promised him that this would be one of the highlights of our U.S. holiday and he wasn’t disappointed. 

Before booking the tickets I researched for a month, reading blog posts, tripadvisor reviews and information on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, a direct shuttle to L.A. and I got loads of perspectives, from people cribbing about coach seats, to fellow passengers, to the delays the line was plagued by, to the service and surliness of dining staff, to the age of the tracks. However, there were also people who had a wonderful experience and gave very useful tips. Biggest of all, to take the train only if you are not on a tight schedule as sometimes the delays could extend to well over 12 hours! 

Dining Car

So I did. Kept a good two day buffer before our flight back home, booked a sleeper cabin - never mind the cost, was going to be a holiday indulgence - and looked forward to getting on the train. We almost didn’t make it though. 

Staying with a childhood friend in Mountainview, California, we had to catch the train from Oakland’s Jack London Station at 8.50 a.m. My friend insisted on driving us there, as only good friends do, and assured us that 40 minutes was all it would take to reach, while carefully making herself a peanut butter sandwich for breakfast. Got into the car at 7.45 a.m., turned on the GPS and uh oh! The earliest we were likely to reach was at 8.45 if we were lucky, and then have to park, find our way in and check in 2 suitcases, it was all looking very bad. 

Breakfast

The highway was jammed because of two or three accidents and apparently a jumper. We were bang in the middle of rush hour but the one thing going for us was the carpool lane which was thankfully free for a huge distance. My friend drove like Schumacher but we were forced to take some circuitous detours and even managed to go off track at one point thanks to me not paying attention to the GPS at a crucial time (OK I know what you’re thinking).

 My heart was sinking, I could see the not-so-small amount of money we paid vanishing in front of my eyes and having to shell out another God-knows-how-much for last minute airfare and my poor friend was beating herself up about taking her time with the peanut butter sandwich, muttering that she would never eat another one in her life, while navigating lanes like a pro. Buy hey, we got to see a whole lot of Oakland that we never would have otherwise! Look at the bright side. 

Pacific Parlour Car Lounge

After about almost an hour of tension, crucial moments ahead where a minute here and there would make all the difference, the hubby suddenly piped up and said `the only way we will make it is if the train is late’. He looked up the website for the timings and voila! It was! By a whole 20 minutes! Phew! All that tension dissipated, we started laughing and joking and made it to the station with a good 15 minutes to spare. 

Aboard the Coast Starlight, our cabin had two long sleeper seats on one wall, and one chair on the opposite window, a teeny tiny bathroom stall with a commode and shower and there was a sink with liquid soap in the cabin just as you enter. We were then directed to the dining car, where we were seated at a table with a white table cloth and given options of different combinations of eggs and pancakes and sausages and the like.

Dining Area of the Parlour Car

The highlight of my journey, however, was the Pacific Parlour car, where there was a single row of chairs lining the windows on each side for a bit and then four dining tables. The parlour car is only accessible to the occupants of the bedroom and roomette categories and all meals are included in the fare while passengers in coach have to pay for their meals. 

I was quite impressed, as anyone who has travelled on Indian Railways would be. My journeys to boarding school the first few years was nothing short of a test of endurance. Once we were stuffed two to a broken wooden bunk on third class (yes they even had third class at one time where there were wooden benches with no padding) with children and parents and porters rushing in with our trunks and bedding holdalls, injuring people in a quest to get a seat because the school would always book fewer seats than the number of children travelling. And the bathrooms! the less mentioned the better. We would hold everything in for as long as we could to spare ourselves the least possible trips there. 

Tenderloin Burger Lunch

Then there was one time, when I was 11 years old, returning from school for the holidays in the second class coach (padded berths and fan) on the Tinsukia Mail, a journey of two nights and three days from Delhi to Guwahati in Assam in June - peak summer - the lights went off in Patna, Bihar for a couple of hours. Traumatic. Food was basic. Rice, dal, chapatis and a vegetable preparation for the vegetarians and chicken curry for the non vegetarians which you had to buy separately. 

California Countryside

I had no money on me and was too shy to ask anyone so I stayed hungry! By the time we arrived in Guwahati, my white shirt had turned grey, filthy. My father, who had come to receive me at the station walked right past me, mistaking the bedraggled imp for a street urchin! I was immediately taken to a hotel where a shower and food were in order before our 8 hour drive home!

After a while our parents threw a fit and the school then started sending us by air-conditioned coaches on the Shatabdi and the Rajdhani, India’s premier trains, though they are still not a patch on the trains of the west. I’m to believe things are changing now, but because train travel in India is regarded as for the masses and those who can afford it mostly choose to fly However, it will take a while for us to have trains with parlour cars and dining cars. On our trains food is delivered to your seat. 

Teeny Tiny bathroom

Shower over the Pot!

On the Coast Starlight, they never allow you to have your own table at the dining car and always seat you with other people. At breakfast, we were seated with a young lady of African American origin with whom we had a delightful two hour chat about everything from current affairs to where to visit in our respective countries and what not. Forgetting the time, we yapped on and on and literally had to be politely reminded that it was time for them to start prepping for lunch service!

At lunch we were paired with a couple, the gentleman from the U.S., the lady from Iceland and us. We had a lovely conversation with them too and marvelled at the fact that on one table we had people of three nationalities. The girl from breakfast we had been chatting with was seated at the table next to us and was paired with another girl from the U.S. and after our table companions left, we all started talking to each other and the waitress was amazed. She pointed to the two tables with an approving smile and said..look at that!

More Brown 

Dinner was with another elderly couple returning to California after visiting their daughter in Seattle and we had a pleasant conversation with them as well. The food options were steak, crab cakes and a couple of other dishes. I went for the crab cakes and then realised I should have opted for the steak. The dining room is a great place to meet new people, though we were very lucky to have had friendly companions for all our meals. Being paired with not so pleasant people would have sucked. 

Still more brown!

I spent all my time in the parlour car reading a book, or gazing out the windows and helped myself to some strawberries that were placed in a bowl for us to help ourselves. Didn’t want to miss out on anything. We barely spent time in the cabin. The meals were so elaborate and so close to one another that it felt like one continuous hog fest the whole journey. My friend, like a super typical hospitable Indian, very particular about feeding people properly, had come back home the night before after a long day at work and immediately got down to making us chicken curry and rice for our journey and even after my trying hard to dissuade her, still went ahead with the meal. We did not get to eat it. Feel so bad. 

We reached Los Angeles Union Station about two and a half hours after the scheduled time and were surprised at how quickly and comfortably the 13 hours on the train went by. Also, the train was quite empty that day so there were no issues with getting a seat at the dining tables and we had a choice on the meal timings and there was always a seat free at the parlour car the entire time. A full train and the scenario would have been very different as my readings divulged that sometimes people did not get accommodated at the dining car because of the numbers.

By the time we got to the good part...Sunset!

The Coast Starlight travels 35 hours from Los Angeles all the way to Seattle, with breathtaking views of the ocean from Los Angeles and apparently gorgeous scenery through forests and mountains through Oregon. Passengers are treated to the ocean view if they start their journey in L.A. and also get to see some of Santa Barbara. We however, were coming the other way round and because it was winter and the sun set around 5.30 p.m. We got just about 15 minutes to enjoy the view of the ocean. The views overall were nothing great and for most of the way we passed through a desert like valley and small hills with pretty much brown scrub. Blame the California drought. 

The train also has a movie screening hall and champagne and cheese party in the evenings in the parlour car which did not happen the day we travelled. Don’t know if I would be able make the 36 hour journey anytime but whatever we did was a great first experience. It also helps if you go with no expectations. You get pleasantly surprised sometimes. We could have done with more interesting scenery though.