Plan on spending a night in LA instead of expecting to make the "guaranteed" connection

In the SightSeer Lounge, they show a movie, or 2, it depends what Train your on, Its much better than plane, in a Train, you have the freedom to move around without waiting for a "seat belt light" to turn off, and theres food in the dinner and in the Lounge, another reson to take the train is the sites you'll see, it a great exspeareance for anyone,, well, its up to you, but the train is alot better

I recommend it if you can afford a deluxe room or a family room. I haven't been the TX to CA route but I did just return from a trip to NYC from Denver with my six year old. I think it is immensely do-able with two kids those ages. He loved every moment on the train. Opportunities to play, learn mechanics and geography, socialize, practice good manners. Trains seem to make even the mundane remarkable to him. And to me for that matter. Took along toys and games and drawing material. He had a camera of his own. Sometimes we ate in the diner and sometimes in our room. Several other kids in the observation car and the cafe car to play with and talk to. There's lot of ways to keep them busy and fed and rested and clean and entertained enroute. And then we had our photos developed immediately, we put them in an album which he presented at news time in his kindergarten class.

I defer to those on the board who know about the connections in LA to San Francisco.

That's the short version. Happy to answer any specific questions you have..

I would recommend a sleeper, as the coaches on the Sunset tend to get progressively crowded west of Houston.

The times I've taken the Sunset this past year, it has been a little late into LA (1 to 4 hours), but the connection to the northbound train has always been made through LA as designed or by bussing passengers from Palm Springs or Pomona.

I never had the disposable income to buy into a sleeper, but with at least 50,000 railroad miles under my belt, I can say with some authority that traveling by coach can be a great experience.

There are definitely some things that you need to do in order to enhance your enjoyment, however. You will need blankets and if you have difficult sleeping, you will definitely need prescription sleeping pills.

Anti bacterial "Wet Ones" really helps to keep oneself refreshed and ready access to clean clothes is also very important.

I have noticed that the Amish travel with their little ones in coach all the time and they seem to have a ball.

Instead of the sleeping pills, buy some Melatonin (cheap and safe) at the drugstore. Works a treat.

I doubt that bussing would have been workable under the circumstances.

I would certainly plan an overnight and avoid any anxiety that would detract from my enjoyment of the trip.

Pne cautionary note, however: The tracks that the two trains travel over are owned by the Union Pacific Railroad. Both stretches of track are very busy, and, in the case of the track between LA & Houston, choaking on the traffic (i.e. full to capacity). So, Don't be surprised if you are side tracked by the frieght - The tracks aren't public. The UPRR, as the land owner, has the right to give Amtrak red lights, and side tracks while its own frieght goes on through. UPRR has acted indifferent if not outright hostile to Amtrak's presence on their tracks. that attitude, combined with the fact that UPRR has chosen to give priority to investment in other parts of its' network before it gets around to adding capacity on the Sunset Route, mena that the Sunset has had atrocious timekeeping in the recent past. Don't dispair, though. In all of my travels over Amtrak, I have found that one can't point to just one single experience and draw generalizations. I've travelled on several different trains, and had different experiences based upon equipment, crew, host railroads (this can be a hugh factor), load factor/level of occupancy and the time of year. Don't judge Amtrak based upon one experience,

I'm going in June but bought my tickets in January, I'm not sure if there's any benefit in being early except you're guaranteed that it won't be booked out!

Looking at the Oct 2003 timetable, we have

3:37p Lafayette
5:08p Lake Charles
6:33p Beaumont

Returning:

12:40p Beaumont
2:40p Lake Charles
4:05p Lafayette
these times could all say, or much later.

Do not know what the situation would be on leaving a car parked long term at either place would be, but since the distance is under 200 miles from where you live maybe you could avoid it.

Lafayette station is in the middle of town. Address I have is 133 E grant St. at Jefferson St.

Lake Charles is 433 Railroad Ave. You can see it from I-10, but if you are seeing it from I-10 you missed the exit you should have taken if you are coming from the Alex direction. Area looks not as good as in Lafayette, but I was by there in 1981, so do not know what it is like now.

You can actually make a convenient bus out of Monroe to Lake Charles, but the transfer in LC would require a taxi. The bus station in Lake Charles is about 6 miles from the train station. There is no conveniet bus connection time for the return, but then the train time east bound is best described as whenever.

If you wnat to try this, check it on www.greyhound.com Bus leaves Monroe at 11:15am, arrives Lake Charles at 4:10pm. Runs by way of Alexandria and Leesville / Ft. Polk. Can leave Rayville by bus shown as 8:55am in Rayville, but this has you sitting almost 2 hours in Monroe.

Take your Mickey Mouse watch and relax.

For example, on the April 19 train 1, it left New Orleans 2 hours 22 minutes late and left Lake Charles at 9:18 pm, which would be 4 hours 10 minutes late. The eastbound train (train 2) on the 20th was worse, I asked for Houston to Lake Charles. 6h00m late at Houston, 11h30m late, that is 1:30am, at Lake Charles (My time in my previous post was quoted wrong. It should have been 2:04pm, not 2:40pm.) How did it lose OVER FIVE HOURS between Houston and Lake Charles?

So I would say, check just before you plan to leave to catch the train to find out how it is doing, and if you will be picked up on your return, tell them to check on train status right up to close to their driving time to the station so they can avoid a long wait.

Your on-train experience should be good, but, unfortunately this is the worst trains for timekeeping in the system.

That way, if the train is especially late, you are not waiting in the middle of the night with two small children in a bad part of town. I think the Sunset Limited is scheduled to arrive fairly late in the evening to Houston, and when the train is running behind, it might be at a very inconvenient hour.

If Dallas is convenient for you, you could take the Texas Eagle to and from LA in the through cars (trains 421 and 422). Or you could take the Texas Eagle north to Chicago to catch the California Zephyr to San Francisco.

The advantage of Dallas is that it is staffed station offering checked baggage and the train departs and arrives during the day. Even if it is a few hours late, it would still be daylight. The on-time performance of the Texas Eagle has greatly improved, so chances are good you will be departing and arriving reasonably on time... for Amtrak.

There are nice hotels nearby and it is in a fairly nice part of downtown. I don't know about the long term parking situation.

Once you are certain of your plans, I would book as early as possible to ensure there is space available, especially since it will be during the busy summer month around a holiday when a lot of people will be traveling. Also, the closer you get to your travel date, ticket prices increase due to increased demand and dwindling availability.

quote:

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Originally posted by fletch:
If I make this trip, it will be around July 7 to July 20. How far in advance should I get tickets and will it be advantageous to buy them early?

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Get your tickets NOW. For summer travel the trains can sell out months in advance. And the longer you wait, the more expensive they get. If you want a family bedroom, there is only one per car, so they are the first to go. Deluxe rooms are only 5 per car. Standard rooms (very small) have 13 per car, but are not suitable for family travel.

Political commentary: The demand for Amtrak sleeping car space exceeds the suppy, yet Congress won't provide capital for more equipment so Amtrak can sell more rooms and make more money and be less dependent on Congress for funding. Go figure.

Back to basic advice: Expect to have fun, but don't expect perfection. Most Amtrak trips seem to involve a few glitches, mostly with timekeeping. Sometimes with other things.

I suggest you read some of Trainweb's travelogues. They'll give you a good idea of what to expect. I have a few of my own on my website. The link is below.

------------------
Sing to the tune of Humoresque:
Passengers will please refrain,
From flushing toilets while the train,
Is standing in the station,
I love you.

The Del Monte Club Car

This would be in part cancelled by the easier drive. From www.mapquest.com I get a distance of 160 miles to Marshall and 185 miles to Longview, with driving times shown as 2h45m and 3h06m respectively, virtually all on interstate. For Lake Charles I get 216 miles and a driving time of 4h30m, much of which is on two lane highways. Assuming the train is on time, this would give you about a 6:00 leave home time to go to Longview or Marshall and a 11:00 leave home time to go to Lake Charles. This said, there are significant advantages to catching the train at Longview. They are: a manned station, a shorter drive on better roads, and probably a better place to stash the car. Now for the bus to Longview option:
Nothing real close on time, but not too bad as these things go: Leave Monroe at 4:20am, have 45 minutes layover in Shreveport,6:00 to 6:45, arrive Marshall at 7:30am, arrive Longview at 8:00am. In neither case is the bus station at the train station. Not sure I believe the location / address I get for the bus station in Marshall, because per Mapquest it is not next to I-20 or US 80. If mapquest is right, it would be 0.6 mi from train station. Longview somewhat similar. Bus station shown at 401 E. Magrill, which per mapquest is 0.54 mile from the train staion, but the location shocwn on mapquest is about 2 blocks off US 80, and not anywhere near the interstate. Coming back the connection is not so good. First, the train, if on time gets to Longview at 7:05pm and the bus is at 10:05pm. Not sure, even in Longview being in a bus station at 10:00 pm is wonderful, and then to ice the cake there is a 4 hour layover in Shreveport in teh middle of the night, so the overall time to Monroe is over 7 hours. Better wait until the next morning. Need to check on whether Longview has taxies, and if they meet the trains. There are two reasonably timed busses in the daytime, 10:20am, 3:25pm. All busses also stop in Marshall about 30 to 35 minutes later than the Longview time. The daytime busses also stop in Rayville.

Incidentially after going into this thread, I have been following trains 1 and 2. The train 1 of April 19 out of New Orleans which was 4h10m late agt Lake Charles was still only "only?" 4h10m late out of San antonio, but was 9h53m late getting to Los Angeles. The train our of New Orleans on April 21 was 1h34m late out of Lake Charles, but only 35 minutes late out of San Antonio, and as of this time has not yet had time to reach Del Rio. Easbound 2 was 5h15m late out of San Antonio, lost another half hour to Houston, and seem to all but die east thereof, taking almost 4 hours to drag itself from Houston to Beaumont (why? that works as paired track), finally arriving in new Orleans exactly 12 hours late. No. 22 did not wait for the connection, as it was shown as leaving San Antonio on time, arriving in Longivew 1h30m late. A check of 21 and 22 have the last 5 days shows 21 as being on time or close at Longview and early into San Antonio and 22 as being within less than one hour of time except for the one day mentioned.

Addition:

The "edit" is because instead of saying "Greyhound" in the first sentence, I said the common name for the species of which the four legged greyhound is a member since one of the nicknames for Greyhound Bus company has always been to say something like, I gotta go catch the (common name of species) to go to where ever. The site changed it to ***. How come? It would not even let the word go into this comment. Is there something in todays foul language of which I am not aware?

quote:

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Originally posted by fletch:
I'm new to the board. I've never traveled by rail, but I'm thinking about jumping on an amtrak with my two kids (6 & 8) and going from Houston to San Francisco. Is this a great idea or a horrible idea? Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

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You've had lots of good advice here on specifics. I'd just like to add my experience of a trip I took last month from ABQ to Seattle & back with my 7 & 9 year olds. They *loved* it; time seemed to actually go fast and we were never really bored. A sleeper is nice for overnight stretches if you can swing it. The 9 yr. old girl liked doing things like friendship bracelets, the 7 yr. old boy, when not busy taking me on exercise walks to explore, liked playing cards. No need to take any games that are too bulky; but maybe look for some smaller versions of simple ones like "Sorry" etc. that they make in travel sizes. You'll see tons of sights you'd never see even in a car, such as whales off the coast. Give them both a camera for their own pictures. If they are social, there will be more kids travelling in Summer also they might meet up with.
I don't want to contemplate a future where the train is not an option for travel for me or my kids! As far as getting administration and congressional support for passenger rail upped as it should be, let's all vote for some serious change come Nov. :-)

Why would they take my money for this trip and then change the schedule making it impossible for me to do it?

This is one way in gauranteeing that people WON'T be repeat customers that's for sure!