Is there a scenic cross country train ride in the US?

Question

I live near Boston, and would like to take a cross country train ride to the west coast- What is concidered the most scenic route? I'd get a private room in a sleeper car, etc.

I've never traveled accross country by train, and could use advice, thanks. The destination is not the important thing- its the voyage.

Answer 1

Break your ride into two chunks: Boston-Chicago, and Chicago-west coast.  Here are your choices for each.

Boston-Chicago:

* The Lake Shore Limited via Albany-Cleveland.   Fast (18hr.) and only slightly scenic. Erie Canal, Lake Erie.

* The Capitol Limited.  You get on this in DC.  It goes to Chicago via Harpers Ferry, Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Scenery in Pennsylvania (in the middle of the night).  Pretty fast (18 hr. from DC).

* The Cardinal.  Slow (24 hr from NYC) and very pretty, through West Virginia and Kentucky.  Get this in NYC.  Only runs 3 days a week.

Chicago-West Coast:

* Empire Builder.  Very scenic.  Over the north country. Minneapolis, Fargo, Havre, Spokane, Seattle/Portland end.

* California Zephyr.  Extremely scenic.  Through the middle, Denver, Glenwood Springs, Salt Lake, and onto the original Transcontinental Railroad route through Reno, Sacramento to San Francisco.

* Southwest Chief.  Closest thing we have to high speed rail out west, but not much in the scenery department.  Raton Pass in southern Colorado is nice.   Kansas City-Albequerque-L.A.

* Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited.  Way slow.  Meandering through the southwest. Chicago, StLouis, Dallas, San Antonio, El Paso, Tucson, Palm Desert, L.A.   Only runs 3 days a week.  

----

Aside from that here are some alternative routes not through Chicago.

* Crescent (from NYC) via DC, Atlanta to New Orleans. Modestly pretty southern scenery.  Then Sunset Limited from the Big Easy to San Antonio, El Paso, etc. to L.A.

* Amtrak/VIA service to Toronto, Ontario Canada.   Then Via's The Canadian across all of Canada to Vancouver. Unbelievable scenery, wow, wow, wow!  To die for.  Slow and expensive.

Obviously, you know NYC and DC are very easy to get to on the train from Boston.  That's why I included trains that departed from those towns.

There is one other train to know about - the Coast Starlight, Seattle to L.A. via Portland, Sacramento, Oakland, Salinas and Santa Barbara.  The most scenic line on Amtrak, 36 hours. (12 hours from Oakland to L.A.)

All these trains can run VERY late.  Plan for this.  If you're ticketed through, Amtrak guarantees your connections.  I've taken Amtrak across the country many times, and my worst travel delay ever was 6 hours - on JetBlue.

Answer 2

Great trip for me!

I went from LA to Chic, thru Colorado, and it was wonderful!

Take some of your own food/snacks as you are captive to their $$prices$$!!

good luck

Answer 3

most people do consider the chicago-omaha-denver-salt lake-oakland train, "California Zephyr", to be the most scenic.  in particular, the Rockies between denver-salt lake is in the daytime.

other routes are great too.  chicago-minneapolis-glacier park-seattle/portland route is scenic thru wisconsin and glacier park.  unfortunately the cascades mountains are usually in the dark, unless train is running really late.

in the east, boston-chicago has a direct train, "lake shore limited".  it is scenic thru massachusetts, but generally follows a very level route along the erie canal and the great lakes.  pennsylvania mountains and famous horshoe curve can be incorporated in your itinerary by going boston-new york or philly, transfer trains to pittsburgh, transfer trains again to chicago.

some other scenic highlights - coast starlight seattle-los angeles, empire builder thru the columbia river gorge portland-spokane, vermonter springfield ma-burlington vt, adirondack albany-montreal, the cardinal thru west virginia.

in fact, if you are going round trip, most people would do a circle trip, ie chicago-oakland/sacramento on the california zephyr, then north on the coast starlight to portland or, then east on empire builder back to chicago.

boston-chicago can be done via lake shore limited direct train, or connection trains via pittburgh or the cardinal via washington dc and west virginia.

hope some of these ideas help you out.  enjoy the trip!!!!

Answer 4

Call am-trac. They have all kinds of trains running akk over the U.S.

Answer 5

If you're wanting to go cross country by train than Amtrak is the only way to go, literally.  Not sure where exactly you're wanting to go but one route might be connecting to service to New York City, then the Pennsylvanian to Pittsburgh, and finally the Capitol Limited to Chicago.

From there, and again I'm not sure exactly where you're wanting to go, but I would suggest taking either the California Zephyr (to Emeryville, California via Denver and Omaha) or the Empire Builder (to Seattle through the Northern Plains and Pacific Northwest) as these two trains offer the absolute best onboard service and scenery of the western states.  In any event, have fun if you decide to go, you can't really beat traveling by train cross country!