By Muir Avenue Ale
Amtrak has ruined my vacation, and I’m pissed.
For years, Amtrak has sold the California Rail Pass for $159. For the right kind of traveler and the right trip, it’s almost too good to be true. During a 21-day period, you can use the pass for seven days of nearly unlimited travel (four trips per day).
The pass includes these four train lines:
- Pacific Surfliner: San Diego to San Luis Obispo
- Gold Runner (my favorite): Bakersfield to Bay Area
- Capital Corridor: Bay Area
- Coast Starlight: Los Angeles to Dunsmuir
These trains are connected by a bunch of bus routes, which the pass covers. Two of these buses even take you into Nevada (Reno, Las Vegas) for no extra charge.
They all allow free luggage up to two 50-pound bags plus personal item. The kicker for me: three of the four train lines and every bus allow you to BRING YOUR BIKE FOR FREE. On the Coast Starlight, I believe there’s a $10 fee and there may be stations that don’t allow bikes; and that line as well as the Pacific Surfliner require reservations. But all in all, HUGE.
As you can see, the possibilities abound for a neat little vacation. And I had mine all planned out.
I was going to Sacramento to watch my favorite American League baseball team, the A’s. Then to Reno, where I have a friend that was going to join me on a bike ride to Lake Tahoe.
Then to San Francisco to watch the Padres play on my birthday and look up another bike-riding friend. I really fell in love with San Francisco’s vibe during a previous Amtrak vacation.
Then south to Bakersfield, with its thriving and historic Basque community, with whom I made friends during a previous Amtrak visit at the Kern County fair.
Then home to San Diego — with at least one segment leftover on my pass. Hundreds in potential savings.
This was going to be the third year for my “Amtrak vacation,” which I’ve been doing in September because I work at the Del Mar Racetrack, where the season ends on Labor Day. It’s also my birthday month.
Again, it’s not for everyone. The first leg alone takes longer than 12 hours. That’s a hard no for many. But it’s more comfortable than most realize. There’s no middle seat – in fact, more often than not, there’s no one sitting next to you. There’s a surprising amount of leg room. Ample outlets to plug in a laptop – plus free wifi. Much of the route network – most famously the Pacific Surfliner, which hugs the coast – are unbelievably scenic. I’ve even seen people bring their families on the Gold Runner just to experience a particular segment that includes several middle-of-nowhere, charming-as-hell stations.
And don’t forget: no check-in and no walk-through gates, which saves enormous time and hassle. In fact, I’ve shown up at the platform with my bike literally seconds before the train departed without problems.
For some reason you can’t order the pass online (one of Amtrak’s many vagaries) so, with a click in my step, I headed to the counter at the Solana Beach station. To cut to the chase, I found out Amtrak discontinued the pass Aug. 26!
“We didn’t even find out till the day before,” said my favorite employee, a chap who has worked there 20-plus years and helped me book a route to Texas and override a charge when the website wanted to charge me triple for one bike.
Inexplicably, all online references and links to the pass remain.
Amtrak did away with the pass with this abrupt, two-sentence paragraph:
“California’s intercity passenger rail partners are taking the opportunity to reevaluate the California Rail Pass and explore future travel products that provide greater flexibility and value for customers traveling throughout the state. As part of this effort, the current California Rail Pass will no longer be available for new purchases effective August 26, 2026.”
I have no idea what this means. Who are these “rail partners” who only gained this “opportunity . . . to explore future travel products” once the California Rail Pass was eliminated? Why couldn’t they keep the pass until developing a replacement?
Why were they in such a rush to eliminate the pass, with absolutely no advance notice? Without offering any analysis to justify it?
Ask the average American what they think about Amtrak – surely the organization must be aware of its questionable reputation. Yes, there are folks like me who like taking the train, but Amtrak does NOT have the luxury of taking our goodwill for granted. Decisions like this only reinforce the perception that Amtrak is disconnected from the people who actually use and appreciate its services.
I have enjoyed my Amtrak vacations tremendously. I want to continue taking them. I hope Amtrak will give customers like me a reason to feel that our loyalty and enthusiasm are valued.
Perhaps Amtrak can be persuaded to reconsider and restore the pass. I did find this email address for public input: AmtrakBoard@amtrak.com. I’ve urged them to act – and I hope you’ll consider doing the same.
Show up at the platform with a bike literally seconds before the train departs without running into a problem?
Try doing that at an airport!
Right? And mostly free, often without having to make a reservation.
Cringe article.
Please consider sending an email to AmtrakBoard@amtrak.com. I’m not expecting much, but can’t hurt to try. Warts and all, Amtrak has a lot of loyal customers, and it’s not fair to take them for granted.
What’s cringe about the article? The only thing that was cringey to me was Amtrak’s euphemistic bs explanation that makes it sound like they’re doing customers a big favor by cancelling this service.
Lee, I assumed he meant Amtrak’s decision to cancel the Pass so suddenly, without notice (even to their own employees) and without offering any analysis is what he was chringing at. That’s why I encouraged him to email the Amtrak Board. I guess if he meant it differently, he can say so. If so it’s a very odd way to interpret my rant.
By the way I emailed the Amtrak Board about two weeks ago and never heard anything back — not even “thank you for your input.” Nothing. Truly crappy customer service. Given high gas prices and concerns over climate change, this should be an ideal time for them to reach out and expand their customer base — not kick their loyal customers in the teeth.
You do know that Amtrak is under the FEDERAL umbrella for funding and administration, yes? So you know that means the Trump Regime has been in control of hiring, firing, costs, scheduling, etc since Jan. 2025?
Did you somehow expect anything else but higher prices for less service? Silly person! You must have not been paying attention the last 18 months.
But then, we know that everything Trump touches turns to s**t.
As for train travel in this country, it’s mostly a joke nowadays since the car and oil companies didn’t want competition at the start of the 20th Century, and very effectively eliminated it. Public transportation has never been a priority since, has it?
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But for the last four years, my little brother has been touring the country on Amtrak in- between his work schedule with multiple NorCal concerts over the Summer and Fall. Those month-long passes were how he traveled, and sometimes it was hit or miss with scheduling connections.
This year he just didn’t have the funds, but I paid his cost to take the Amtrak trip down from NorCal to OB and pick up my very first shortboard that showed up on eBay. Since he wanted to come up and visit this year, he suggested that he could carry my 1968 psychedelic ‘Peace Sign’ Surfboards Australia single fin and turn around with it and head this way after visiting and wandering the beaches for a couple of days. Thanks to Geoff Page who picked it up from the eBay seller and stored it for me, and to Judi Curry for hosting my little brother at her house on Sunset Cliffs for a few days.
But like everything this Regime has done, he saw first-hand the downward spiral. With funding cut, maintenance of infrastructure delayed or outright canceled, and combined with incompetent political appointees since Trump took over, Amtrak is suffering like everything else is.
At least you didn’t have to sit on a broken-down train in the middle of nowhere for hours in the heat of summer until a repair crew showed up. That made him miss the afternoon connection in Portland that heads east towards me. He spent the night in a motel with a sub-par restaurant, and had to carry around my 6’10” board all afternoon the next day until the next train was scheduled to leave since he had to be out of the motel by 11am and the train didn’t leave until 5pm…
Only good thing was that the board actually fit in the luggage racks above the seats. The last leg of the trip it had to go into the luggage car, but at no extra charge. Best thing was that my little brother and I hung out together…and he brought me the board I bought in 1968 and sold in 1970 that I never imagined I would ever see again.
There’s a good Amtrak story!
sealintheSelkirks
OMG ! Here’s another anti- Trumper who blames everything that is negative on Trump. Give me a break. Trump’s not perfect as no one is but I haven’t done too bad under his administration as a retiree. At least I didn’t have to look behind me all the time as under that senile Biden with his One World Government policies.
Ummmm, dude, not sure who you are replying to?
But I’ll take a swing to help correct your mistaken view of the actual policies of Biden as he has always been a right-wing neoliberal war monger who loved long prison sentences for pot smokers along with his buddies Bill & Hillary Clinton in the 1990s who loved big corporations, Wall Street, bankers and the right wing wealthy corporate Democrats/DNC types (essentially Reagan-Dems). In other words, he was very much a right-of-center republican in all but name. Just like Trump has always been even if he did donate to abortion rights groups.
As for the “One World Government” comment, the billionaires and multi-millionaires are vacuuming up everything quite nicely into that reality don’t you think? Biden Trump IS a one world government…but only if it is him in charge. Didn’t you actually listen to what he was saying the other day in his meandering UN speech?
You are so lucky to not be doing “too bad” under the second Trump regime. I would qualify it with a ‘yet’ though, because I am quite aware of what status group and political party was in control of this country in 10 of the last 11 ‘economic downturns.’ There is a reason that the Great Depression was originally titled ‘The Republican Great Depression’ back in the 1930s…
Here’s a thought; is it possible that we’ll have ‘Trumpvilles’ full of starving citizens before long? I’m guessing that President Hoover and his ‘Hoovervilles’ could be outdone just by the size of the population in this country that are being priced out of being able to afford anything.
He loves to splash his name on everything even if it has nothing to do with him, so why wouldn’t he since he’s overseeing the current crash of the US economy? I mean, at least he’ll be justified since his policies are causing it!
As a retiree, your sense of entitlement I see in your reply is actually a hallmark of the real form that Trump Derangement Syndrome has taken in this country. Like the folks who followed Jim Jones to Guyana, it’s probably going to come back to bite you on the ass.
sealintheSelkirks