Southwest Chief

The Southwest Chief is one of Amtrak's longest journey's, stretching from Los Angeles, California all the way to Chicago, IL.

Our Journey began in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Union Station is a gorgious building. It is worth visiting even if you aren't taking a train and served as a great place to start our trip. We checked in 6 bags, each weighing nearly 50 pounds, which was the maximum allowed. We also carried on 2 backpacks, a bag of food and our laptops. The track is announced about 30 minutes before the train is scheduled to depart, 15 minutes after that they will let you board. Coach passengers need to wait in line to check-in, sleeper car passengers who already have their tickets go strait to their train without waiting.

Accomodation

Technically there is only one class on Amtrak, which you can then upgrade to various types of sleeping accomodations. Depending on the route you are taking, the sleeping options differ both in accomodation, and in price. In our case, we paid about $178 for two adults to Chicago, then upgraded to a roommette for an additional $262. We purchased our tickets online and printed a receipt. We then took that receipt to the train station where we got our tickets and checked our bags.

Our roommete was assigned to us by Amtrak prior to check-in and was at the far end of the car near the door, far away from the bathroom, which was at the center. At the time of this post, the Southwest Chief utilized a Superliner car for sleepers, you should check with Amtrak before booking to check on the details as they are not always the same. Our Superliner roommette was small, but adequate for 2 people. It included 2 seats that faced eachother. Those seats flattened out to form the lower bed (berth), the other bed is a bunk that is a bunk above the seats that pulls down when needed. Next to one of the chairs is a coat rack area about 6 inches wide and a small slot to store things. Next to the other chair are the stairs to the upper bunk. You can use the steps for placing luggage on. There is no overhead storage in the roommette. We placed things we didn't need under the seats or tried to suspend them near the coat rack. You can also use the baggage storage area provided near the main door of the Superliner car, but we opted to keep our things in our room.

The superliner car is well equipped for long journeys. There were 4 bathrooms and one shower for each sleeper car. We found there were always bathrooms available and even took a shower each morning without waiting. Towels were also provided. Each sleeper car had its own attendent to makes sure everything was taken car of. The attendant is responsible for pulling down your bed, making sure you get off at the right spot etc.. They also ensure there is juice and coffee available to guests in their car. We tipped our attendant $10 the first night as goodwill for the rest of the trip. It is a good practice to tip them for things like bringing you food, helping with luggage, etc...

Meals are included with the sleeper accomodation. This means breakfast, lunch and dinner all served in the dining car. You can also have meals served in your room or roommette by asking your car attendent. Meals are selected from a menu and the portions are more than adequate. I was expecting airline portions, so was pleasantly surprised by the amount of food I got. If you are in a sleeper, you really dont need to bring any additional food unless you just get sick of what they offer. The menu is a bit limited and the quality is acceptable but not great. The first night we had broiled chicken and a penne pasta. The chicken was a massive portion and the pasta was cold. The next morning I had the continental breakfast, which was fairly good and very filling. I had the angus burger for lunch, which was good and big but barely warm. The second night one of us got the chicken again cause nothing else on the menu looked good and after not finishing it cause it wasn't that good and the portion was huge, got a 5 minute lecture from he waiter about wasting food. Breakfast the last morning included turkey sausage and eggs. The eggs were grainy and horrible and the sausage tasted like wet card board. It really was the worst breakfast I ever had, not exaggerating. We skipped lunch on the last day.

The train also includes a lounge car where you can watch the scenery. This is a great feature for people riding in coach and its a very popular place to hang out, especially for families with children. There is a snack bar on the bottom floor of the car.

The journey itself was very pleasant and seemed to be over before we knew it. We slept really well each night as the train rocked us to sleep. Having our own roommette is what really made the trip an experience.

Scenery

The scenery along the route is amazing, albiet not as magestic as what we had hoped to find on the California Zephyr. The train goes through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. However, much of this you won't see because it will be during the night. Our departure from LA was at 6:45pm and it was already dark when we left. Therefore, we missed seeing the California desert and all of Arizona. When we woke up the next morning we were in New Mexico, which took nearly the whole day to cross. New Mexico contained some beautiful mountains and buttes as well as vast open landscapes. At nightfall the second day, we had just entered Colorado. By the 3rd morning we were in Kansas and watched as miles and miles of rolling hills covered in snow passed us by. The landscape was fairly similar from Kansa to Illinois.

Overall, we very much enjoyed our trip on the Soutwhest Chief.

Travel Tips

• Amtrak will not allow a bag over 50 pounds and they are very strict.
• Food on the train is adequate, but bring some extra if you have special tastes.
• Roommettes are small and intimate, you may not want to share with a stranger.
• Meals and drinks all fully included with any sleeper accomodation.
• Check the time of your departure to determine what scenery you can see during the day.