New York to San Francisco by train

n97 mini

I'm toying with the idea of doing this. Has anyone else done this journey, or part of it?

tabbey

n97 mini wrote: »

I'm toying with the idea of doing this. Has anyone else done this journey, or part of it?

For a long time I have had an aspiration to cross North America from coast to coast, either in Canada or US.
I was only in N America once, in 1988, If I was to do a transcontinental trip, I would like to break my journey several times. The difficulty with this is that the train might arrive in one of these locations at say 0250 or 0435, and a day or two later, would depart at a similar hour. Also budget accommodation, ie motels tend to be near the highways, while hotels near rail stations are either overpriced or substandard.
The alternative is to take two full length journeys, NY to Chicago and Chicago to SF. Chicago is the hub or crossroads of US railroads, and well worth a week, taking day trips to Milwaukee and other cities, before continuing on a two night sleeper journey to California.

lc180

Check out the California Zephyr train from Chicago to San Francisco. It's 50+ hours if you don't get off. I've been wanting to do that trip for a while now. It looks like an amazing journey which let's you see a some beautiful parts of America.

MoeJay

I've taken the California Zephyr; I thought it was brilliant. I went westbound out of Chicago in January by myself with a booked Roomette that I found perfectly adequate and comfortable. The food onboard and general service all round was good.

The experience is definitely worth it.

MGWR

For the record, there is only one train that runs from New York to Chicago these days, that being the Lake Shore Limited, which apart from running out of Penn Station instead of Grand Central since 1991 follows the route of the former 20th Century Limited of the New York Central system. Thanks to 18 intermediate stops, the average speed of the train is about 48 mph (if on time and not badly delayed by freight trains having priority); in the line's heyday, the 20th Century would have an average speed of 61 mph, with between five to seven intermediate stops.

There were never any direct transcontinental trains between New York and any of the west coast's major cities, although there used to be through sleeper service on various trains where the sleepers would be shunted between the different railway companies' trains. Coach passengers would always have to change, whether in Chicago or St. Louis (or in the case of Amtrak's National Limited, Kansas City); Amtrak got rid of direct service between New York and St. Louis in 1979. The only transcontinental train that Amtrak ever operated was a re-routed Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and Orlando, Florida.

The California Zephyr travels to Oakland, not San Francisco, and terminates at Emeryville just west of Oakland. The closest BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) connection is the Lake Merritt station in Oakland, about four blocks north of Jack London Square. (BART's track gauge is 5' 6", for the record. And travelling the wrong direction from Lake Merritt could mean you end up in Dublin.) Freight train delays have to be expected on the Zephyr route as well.

As far as missed connections in Chicago, Amtrak used to have a practice where sleeper passengers only would be put up in a hotel overnight and be issued a voucher for a free meal. This may still be in force today.

MoeJay

The Amtrak website will sell you a ticket into San Francisco but it will be a bus transfer, not that big a deal as I found.

Running on the freight tracks subject to delays was half the fun....sitting for 3 hours in the middle of nowhere due to an offending freight loco ahead is part of the trip's charm! Lunch was called like there was no problem!

The Chieftain

MGWR and others are correct about the need to connect in Chicago. US rail services are essentially split in two - NE and East coast services have single level carriages not too dissimilar from those in Ireland or most of Europe, while West coast and transcontinental trains operate with much larger, bi-level coaches. Amtrak has full restaurant as well as snack cars, viewing cars (large picture windows), and full sleeping cars. About half the sleeping compartments have their own showers and toilets, others share. The splitting point between these two types of service is and always has been Chicago. I took the train from LA to Chicago 28 years ago - took two full days! Amazing journey, much recommended! Other senic routes are LA to Seattle, and Seattle-Chicago. Note that the trains do NOT actually serve San Francisco, due to geography. They go to Oakland, on the other side of San Francisco Bay. Amtrak sells, or used to sell, rail passes.