Amtrak NY to San Fransico

[Jack in England]

Hi anyone else done this trip?

Looking at going beginning of Oct 23 undecided whether to go from NY or Chicago

 

[AlterEgo]

The real appeal of this trip is on the California Zephyr and I wouldn't want an extra night on the Lake Shore Limited (it'll be dark during the nice parts of that trip) unless I wanted the cachet of having done coast-to-coast on Amtrak.

 

[matt]

I did it in 2019 starting in Boston then onto New York, Chicago and San Francisco. Its a well recommended trip although a summer trip is better so you can see more of the route.

 

[ac6000cw]

Unless you

The real appeal of this trip is on the California Zephyr and I wouldn't want an extra night on the Lake Shore Limited (it'll be dark during the nice parts of that trip) unless I wanted the cachet of having done coast-to-coast on Amtrak.

I'd second that.

As a place for a rail enthusiast to visit, for me Chicago is hands-down better than NYC because of all the freight traffic that travels in, out and through it - plus there's all the commuter rail (diesel loco hauled and EMU) and the elevated transit lines in the centre. It's the cross-roads of the US rail system.

If you do decide to start from NYC, I'd still suggest having a stopover in Chicago to have a look/ride around.

(and yes, I have done coast-to-coast on Amtrak, three nights in seated accommodation...)

 

[Iskra]

I did it earlier this year:

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Not a great time to do it as Amtrak are having rolling stock issues which could result in you being downgraded to Coach class or unreliability, which as I can attest is not ideal for 50+ hours on the Zephyr. Glad I did it, but it was a bit of a chore towards the end.

If you've not been to NY before, then go from there, if you're going to do the Zephyr you may as well go all out and do both. The Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge is one of the best things about Amtrak so it would be a shame to miss that. I also enjoyed travelling along the Hudson River out of NY and all the steelworks and rail yards approaching Chicago were interesting.

 

[jfollows]

I've done various iterations, I lived in Boulder (CO) near Denver 1989-1992 so I travelled by train on business when I could. Yes, New York-Chicago isn't as scenic, but you get to leave New York on the train - first time I did it was Grand Central also, but Penn since then of course.
I'd say go the whole way if you can.
I've done it in sleepers and seated, and to be honest the seated was fine. Oakland-Los Angeles-New Orleans-New York-Chicago-Denver was great, that was in 1996 so a while back now. I flew back to San Francisco for the last leg that time only because my rail pass ran out. OK I was younger then too, but I'd do it again at 61 to be honest.
When I lived in Boulder I'd drive up to the Moffat Tunnel entrance and also used the ski train Denver-Winter Park twice, so it's certainly scenic on that bit, but personally I wouldn't over-state this, the experience of long-distance train travel was great even over the plains from Chicago to Denver. Do what you can and you won't regret it, I have memories from my times which will last all my life.

 

[ac6000cw]

If you've got the time/money, doing something like NYC - Washington DC (NEC via Philadelphia), then the 'Capitol Limited' to Chicago (via Pittsburgh) would give you a more varied ride through the north-eastern US (and through more states - New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois). Part of that follows the historic 'Baltimore & Ohio' route, the oldest mainline in North America, dating from the early 1830s.

 

[Iskra]

If you've got the time/money, doing something like NYC - Washington DC (NEC via Philadelphia), then the 'Capitol Limited' to Chicago (via Pittsburgh) would give you a more varied ride through the north-eastern US (and through more states - New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois). Part of that follows the historic 'Baltimore & Ohio' route, the oldest mainline in North America, dating from the early 1830s.

Apparently not a good choice if you want to sleep, the track quality is supposed to be poor on this route.

 

[Jack in England]

I think what we will do is 2 nights Chicago then sleeper to SF

2-night sleeper is about $1000

 

[181]

the Lake Shore Limited (it'll be dark during the nice parts of that trip)

According to the current Thomas Cook timetable, the Lake Shore Limited leaves New York at 15.40, so in early October you'd probably see most of the Hudson River part in daylight. My understanding is that that's the most scenic part, although I haven't done the rest of the route.

If you've got the time/money, doing something like NYC - Washington DC (NEC via Philadelphia), then the 'Capitol Limited' to Chicago (via Pittsburgh) would give you a more varied ride through the north-eastern US (and through more states - New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois). Part of that follows the historic 'Baltimore & Ohio' route, the oldest mainline in North America, dating from the early 1830s.

What I did, having seen the Hudson River before from the Montreal train, was to get the Pennsylvanian (mid-morning departure from NY) through the Alleghennies (including the famous Horseshoe Curve) to Pittsburgh and change to the Capitol Limited there. The Cardinal route offers another option.