Posted on 12/11/2025 9:29:21 PM PST by Morgana
* Passengers say the journey on Amtrak’s Southwest Chief — delays and all — is worth it: no TSA lines, ground-level scenery spanning deserts and mountains, and hours of unrushed conversation with fellow travelers.
* The route attracts everyone from Amish families seeking affordable medical care in Tijuana to model railroaders, artists and senior travelers rediscovering American landscapes.
We were well into our journey from Los Angeles to Chicago, surrounded by cornfields and grain elevators, when the train halted and a voice rang out.
“All right, folks,” said a man on the PA system. “We’ve come to a stop in what appears to be the middle of nowhere.”
To a traveler in a hurry, this is the stuff of nightmares. To a seasoned passenger on the L.A.-Chicago train known as Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, it’s just another day.
When you board an American long-distance train in 2025, you are trading the airport routine for entry into a locomotive-driven realm where there is neither TSA nor WiFi. And AI might as well stand for aged infrastructure.
There will be delays, often because of passing freight trains. But in the bargain, you are freeing yourself from worry about aerodynamics or the chronic shortage of U.S. air traffic controllers and gaining access to ground-level scenery and idle hours.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
A friend of mine in the global rail infrastructure business chuckles about the glowing praise of European train travel compared to the US. The more expensive, first-class, upper-tier (and tourist appeal) trains are one thing, but the proletariat people-movers can be what he described as "eye-opening... and eye-watering," (which I thought was a clever bon mot).
*The CONO is plagued by a number of issues; oddly, one of them is - or was, if IL has stopped doing it - being used as a get-the-hell-out-of-here "taxicab" for inmates released from the Illinois prison system. Conductors and assistant conductors/attendants on the CONO frequently have bigger helpings of misery than on other Amtrak routes.
Sounds like “Trains, Planes and Automobiles”.
My Dad used to tell the story that by the time we reached Connecticut I started asking "are we there yet?"
My ex-husband and our son took the Trans-Canadian west to east to New York, toured around, then went to D.C., then Chicago, then took the Southwest Chief back to LA. My son came back bragging about the great food on the train. That was irritating.
“Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by ‘76 we’ll be A.O.K.
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free.”
Years ago I took Amtrak from Chicago to East Lansing, MI, and had to go through TSA at Union Station in Chicago. Did that operation get shut down, or did the author not make the return trip before writing this?
I rode the train from Chicago to LA twice, in 1970 and 1971. The first time it was still run by Santa Fe. Uncrowded. The next year it had been taken over by Amtrak. Much more crowded, not as enjoyable.
Indeed you get to see things you will never see from the road or air plane.
In 1962 my parents took the oldest five of us to the Seattle World’s Fair. We flew from Portland to Seattle, spent a week or so at the fair, then took the train home. My first plane ride and first train ride.
Since then, I’ve only traveled by train once, a trip from Portland to San Francisco in 1989 on the Coast Starlight. It was OK, but I still prefer to drive.
I love the train, but I hate getting stuck because it ran out of fuel or it breaks down or they stop for two hours to pick up freight box cars.
The Christmas Train
- David Baldacci
We’d take day trips on Amtrak from Simi Valley to Santa Barbara once in a while when we lived in CA. Short trips, but pretty.
I wanted to take the Sunset Limited between Los Angeles and NOLA, but Katrina ended that. If would be a great route to reinstate.
No I don’t, sorry. I’m sure it varies a lot depending on route, season, accommodations, etc. Plenty of youtube videos on the subject.
Took my daughter from Omaha to Chicago & back and we had a couple hour delay coming back. Week later, the Chicago to Omaha train had to stop because a tree fell across the tracks. The people on board had to wait 10-12 hours before an Amtrak crew could pull it off the tracks.
I hate to admit it, but I do not remember the name of the train we took from DC to Chicago. I even tried looking at Amtrak’s map to see if anything rang a bell, but no.
Just because you are a taxpayer who subsidizes Amtrak does not mean you can afford to ride Amtrak. It’s more expensive than flying. And flying is more expensive than driving.
We use the roomettes on Amtrak. I wouldn’t want to go coach on overnight trips. These are quite expensive!
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