A Day on the Coast Starlight

I had about two hours to wander about Union Station before the Coast Starlight departed for home. The station has a beautifully restored Art Deco interior, the wood paneled walls and spacious seating areas were very inviting. There was no wifi service, and limited food opportunities which was disappointing but I enjoyed walking around the building. I boarded the coach section of the Coast Starlight train around 10:00am. I don't usually ride with the riff raff but didn't feel like shelling out the extra dough for a sleeper. Looking back I should have skipped the sleeper from ABQ to LA and taken the roomette for the LA to OAK journey. Ten hours without being able to get away from the public becomes wearing.

The attendants seemed to seat people according to where you were headed so I ended up around the middle of the train sitting next to a nice lady from Santa Fe who was going to San Jose. We talked awhile about New Mexico and about the route of the Coast Starlight, which she had taken before. After the car attendant took our tickets I moved up to the lounge car. The first couple of hours the route travels the uninteresting sprawl of LA. Shortly after noon though we came out to the glorious Pacific. When they say the Coast Starlight goes right along the ocean, it does. In places you can look straight down from the train window and see the rocky shore. It's absolutely marvelous and I was lucky enough to get a window seat along the side looking out over the water. We saw swimmers, surfers, pelicans, dolphins, beachgoers of all sorts. At 2:15 the train stopped at Lompoc, seemingly the middle of nowhere but there was a ticket machine right next to the beach. Most of the day was foggy, but watching the coastline there is never a dull moment.

The Coast Starlight was fairly crowded. For most of the day I sat near some guys who had just finished the 545 mile AIDS ride from San Francisco to LA. The train went along the same route they had biked so they pointed out various places they remembered along the way. A young man in a hat played guitar all the way to Salinas, a sort of country, folksy, music that suited the ride well. We turned away from the coast at St. Louis Obispo in mid-afternoon to head up the Salinas Valley. Shortly after leaving the coast the train goes around Horsehoe Curve, where from the lounge car you can see both the front and back of the train at the same time. Miles and miles of agriculture. Here the freight trains rule, at one point we had to stop at a siding while the conductor got out to manually flip a track switch, the train pulled through then the switch had to be manually set back into place. Entering the Salinas Valley signals a return to the real world. The scenery is a little less marvelous, the towns a little less solitary and more familiar names start popping up.

The train approached San Jose a little after sunset. The route then goes along the bay up to Oakland. I found this somewhat interesting after having driven the route so many times and always sort of wondered about where the train ran. As we neared Oakland I thought about how often I watched the trains pass through the city and how separate a world it is to actually be on one. We rolled into Jack London Square around 10:00, just half an hour late. The coach cars being in the back of the train let me out just a block from my apartment. The short walk home was uneventful, it sort of amazes me how many people ask me if it was safe to be walking home at night. I had however met a couple on the train who did not have a hotel reservation for the night in Oakland and were under the delusion of their being hotels right next to the train station. I recommended a place a few blocks away, to which I suggested they take a cab.

Not having a room on the Coast Starlight I think I spent more of the day talking to people. It might also be a train where more people travel coach and so the lounge car is filled all day by the same travelers. I was struck by how many drunk people there were on this train, something I had not experienced on other Amtrak routes and several other passengers commented on this also. It was a congenial atmosphere though and when I grew tired of the hubbub of conversation I retired to my seat on the coach car. Still I would have been happier with my own cozy roomette. Someday I would like to take the Coast Starlight all the way to Seattle but that my friends is another adventure for another time!