Strangers on a train
The highs and lows of a 2-day rail journey from Chicago to LA
ABOARD THE SOUTHWEST CHIEF – At 6 a.m., the sun shoots through the back window of the Amtrak train car like an orange spotlight. Outside, the rails glow against the flat plains of western Kansas. Maybe the light woke me. Or maybe, after four or five times of restlessly opening my eyes, it just happens to be dawn.
I teeter down the aisle of two and a half cars full of people on my way to the Café Car for coffee.
I boarded the 2:50 p.m. Southwest Chief out of Chicago’s Union Station on a Friday. By midmorning Sunday, we’ll arrive at another Union Station: Los Angeles. I could have flown between the two cities in roughly four hours. But as a frequent flyer all too familiar with the rush and stress of air travel, I was drawn to the idea of a long, slow journey across America by rail. Now, 15 hours into my inaugural long-haul train trip — a $146-dollar (coach class), 44-hour, 2,265-mile excursion through eight states — the experience hasn’t stopped surprising me.
At this moment, I’m taken by how unexpectedly intimate an experience it is to see strangers wake up in the morning. An old man with holes in his socks, snoring. A young couple bundled in a duvet. A teddy bear nestled into a pile of blankets, two seats all to itself.
I make my way to the observation car, the train’s thriving social hub for all passengers — those in the least expensive upstairs and downstairs coach seats and those who booked pricier roomettes (more space and privacy) and bedrooms (even more space, plus a toilet and shower). The observation car is bright and peaceful, with big tables with outlets for phones and laptops and wall-to-wall windows that arch up to the ceiling.
Coffee in hand, I join two passengers I met yesterday, Teddy Christjohn, 71, a veteran from the Native American Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, and James Lotterer, 31, a musician from Buffalo, New York. Christjohn hands us each a beautiful, fat Cortland apple. They didn’t have apples in the Café Car on his last trip, he tells us, so he brought some from the Oneida tribal orchards — enough to share.
Lotterer, heading to meet his parents in Sedona, Arizona, prefers trains over planes or cars because of their smaller carbon footprint. Christjohn says planes give him earaches and headaches. I’ve never been on a long train trip before, I tell them. Amtrak has considered replacing stretches of this historic route with bus service. I wanted to experience it while I could.
Our reasons for being here