If long-haul passenger trains have a future in the U.S., the Coast Starlight is why.
Every day at 9:30 a.m., the deluxe train leaves Los Angeles on its way up the West Coast. Fifteen minutes later, the southbound version leaves Seattle. It’s been operating like that since 1971.
In the last few years the Coast Starlight has become the showcase for Amtrak’s finest and classiest service. The line features wine tastings, movies, kiddie games, additional lounge cars and room service, even when the room is merely a seat.
The name is a variation on the old Coast Daylight, a West Coast train operated by the Southern Pacific before U.S. passenger rail service was consolidated into Amtrak, the quasi-governmental agency, in 1971.
Understanding the Coast Starlight, however, starts with knowing what it is not. It is not, for example, high-speed rail. The 1,389-mile run from L.A. to Seattle takes 35 hours, averaging 39 m.p.h.
It is not a particularly efficient form of mass transit. The airlines carry more people faster and cheaper.
And it is not a favorite of Congress, which has given Amtrak until 2003 to wean itself off federal subsidies. Passenger trains, Amtrak critics say, may have a place in high-density corridors such as Boston-Washington, D.C., or L.A.-San Diego. But they question the wisdom of using federal money for a service along routes on which highway congestion is not an issue.
But neither is it some nostalgia tour trying to re-create gauzy memories of the golden age of railroads. The Coast Starlight offers a unique premium service that owes more in style and form to cruise ships and fine hotels than airplanes.
For a combination of reasons, these are good days for Amtrak. The 150-m.p.h. Acela train began service in December between Washington and Boston. Amtrak recently took delivery on the first of 85 new diesel locomotives. And it expects to meet that 2003 budget target and sees itself well-positioned to build a high-speed rail network.
“Amtrak is operating more like a private-sector business–transforming itself into a commercially oriented, customer-focused and fiscally sound organization,” Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson, chairman of Amtrak’s board, told Congress in October.
Last summer was Amtrak’s best, with more than 2 million riders a month in June, July and August. The railroad credits this upswing in part to its new guarantee of satisfaction where riders unhappy with their experience get chits for future trips.
There are still delays. A southbound trip on the Coast Starlight last August was stopped after a sinkhole opened south of San Luis Obispo, Calif. Riders were ferried by buses to their destinations.
Annoyances may persist, but the tradeoff is worth it because there’s a lure to rail travel that defies rational explanation. It endures despite our impatient culture that demands faster, better and more. Riding the train, however, asks you to unplug all the aggravations of everyday life and surrender to subtle rhythms and visual splendors. You can never defeat time, but here you get a rare chance to luxuriate in it.
“This,” one contented Coast Starlight rider said over the lip of a martini, “is a very civilized way to travel.”
More than that, you see cities from a perspective you never get from an airport or the interstate. On the train, you see downtowns, neighborhoods, alleys and back yards. When the train glides through in the middle of the night, you see cars prowling the streets on secret adventures carried out while the town sleeps.
There’s little complaint about the scenery from the Coast Starlight because it passes through some of the most dramatic vistas in North America, starting along Puget Sound, moving south through Oregon’s Willamette Valley and then high up into the Cascades and down along the California coast, where it makes good on its name.
It’s a grand train, 15 cars front to back, two engines; a baggage car; one crew dorm; three sleepers; the Pacific Parlour car, the lounge for sleeping-car passengers; a diner; a lounge; and five coaches. These are the double-decker coach cars too tall to run east of Chicago. The seats don’t fully recline, but they tilt back enough to offer a decent night’s sleep.
Service cranks up in the sleeper cars. It’s not cheap. A coach seat from Seattle to Los Angeles costs $101 per person. Fair enough. Two people in a standard bedroom, though, would pay $427 total, and a deluxe bedroom would cost $712.
The standard bedroom is small but comfortable. Two seats facing each other by day turn into upper and lower berths by night, perhaps 5 feet wide by 6 feet long. Bathrooms, including showers, can be found on the lower deck. Deluxe bedrooms are twice the size to sleep a family of four and include a bathroom and shower.
Sleeper passengers receive a variety of treats, including Ghiradelli chocolates and a little basket with soap, shampoo and other toiletries. At the end of each sleeper car, the attendant keeps a fruit basket and a pot of coffee.
For some riders, getting there is the whole point.
Rod and Natalie McMillan of Peoria, Ariz., for example, sat in the Pacific Parlour car one night and talked about their train adventures. They rode the Super Chief to Chicago, where they caught the Empire Builder to Seattle. After a stopover, they got on the Coast Starlight heading for Los Angeles and planned to take the Super Chief home.
“If you fly,” Rod McMillan said, “all you see are little green squares. On the train, you get up and walk around and you meet people. Interesting things happen.”
Sometimes it involves celebrities. Linda Ronstadt, Marlon Brando, Rob Lowe and Suzanne Somers have ridden the Coast Starlight, as have Johnny Depp, Moon Unit Zappa, Jonathan Winters and Art Schell, the football coach.
Tom Anderson knows a lot of what’s happened on the train through the years. The bartender joined the crew in 1974 and, after an uninteresting stint in management, came back in 1991. He has helped women giving birth and had riders die in his arms. Twice he’s had guns pulled on him, both times by passengers angered by the closing of the bar.
Anderson has been around long enough to classify the average riders into three categories. First, he said, you’ve got the twinkies. They get a twinkle in their eye every time they talk trains. Then you have the buffs who carry log books, radio scanners, check-off sheets and car identification books.
“Then you get the foamers,” he explained. “You mention trains, and they start foaming at the mouth.”
The Coast Starlight at night provides plenty of opportunities for exploration. There was a wine tasting in the Pacific Parlour car, with a selection of California wines, including Robert Mondavi and Preston. The dinner menu was limited and pricy but good and served on china. The New York steak was $19 but better than might be expected. And there was a fine selection of wine, beers and single malt scotch.
There’s a small video theater downstairs though the movie selection was limited to a dozen or two classices, children’s movies and newer releases.
And then there’s Susie Rainbow. For nearly five years, the Los Angeles clown has worked the Coast Starlight dressed in a rhinestone-studded, fringed denim shirt, cowboy boots and a polka-dot apron overflowing with balloons, stickers and magic markers. As an all-purpose entertainer, she amuses the kids with balloon animals and amuses the adults with trivia games and magic.
The lure of the train is just as powerful for the staff as the passengers, perhaps more so.
Elizabeth DeBiasi, a sleeping car attendant, was attracted by the travel, the generous retirement, the variety of people she meets and the fact she keeps her feet on the ground.
“Our wings don’t have ice on them,” she said. “We don’t forget to pressurize our cabin, the landing gear is always down and we don’t have far to drop.”
