Nope. The diner was sleeper passengers only during the worst of covid, but it’s now open to coach passengers again as I described above. You have to reserve a time slot for dinner, but for breakfast and lunch you can just walk in. Sleeper passengers also have the option of having dinner delivered to their room.
I haven’t ridden Amtrak since I was a child so I can’t comment on the modern experience but one thing to be aware of is that Amtrak largely uses rail lines that are owned by freight companies, which prioritize their own freight over passenger trains. As a result, you may spend hours sidelined and be delayed, so give yourself extra time on both ends. This isn’t so much an issue on Acela or Coast Starlight. I have a coworker who took the Sunset Limited (with wife and two kids) and lost about 8 hours sidelined. The trains have WiFi but generally not high bandwidth so don’t plan on streaming video or staying up to the minute on sportsball scores.
Even with all that, I’d prefer the train. I am done with air travel short of a funeral I can’t avoid or a major calamity.
Stranger
Not trying to be funny here. I read somewhere (maybe in a recent SDMB thread) that any given Observation Lounge will have one annoying sensitive type with a guitar.
Perfect time to pull out an Adam Driver accompaniment:
Stranger
Some trains have wifi. The long distance ones don’t, so there’s gonna be stretches in the big empty middle part of fhe country where you won’t be able to get any wireless access. Plan accordingly and bring a boom or two.
Another protip; bring a power strip. The long distance passenger cars are old - some of the Superliners date to the '70s, and I don’t think Amtrak has purchased any new ones since before 2000, so they predate the widespread adoption of portable electronics. The sleepers only have one outlet per room, for instance. AIUI Amtrak is planning to replace the Superliners and Viewliners with a new series of cars sometime in the next decade.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow your roll! Just ‘cause we ain’t got no TSA on this ride don’t mean you can go all Dennis Hopper here! This rig ain’t gonna get up to 55 even with Sandra Bullock at the engine.
Stranger
Ah, I missed that. Glad to hear it’s open to coach passengers again.
Ack! I meant “book”, obviously, but for some reason autocorrect doesn’t work for me on the Dope.
Out here you’re more likely to find Mennonites camped out in the observation car. They’re easily noticable, but they’re quiet and polite.
Indeed. The flatiron steak was the best thing I ate onboard, even if it was more rare than I requested it. It comes with your choice of mashed or baked potato, sauteed carrots, and a port wine sauce, and you also get your choice of appetizer and dessert. For the latter, I recommend the chocolate mousse torte - it’s ridiculously rich and you get a generous sized slice.
I once (this was between 2004 and 2009) traveled round trip from San Francisco (well, Oakland) to Salem, Oregon on the Coast Starlight, an overnight trip, in Coach. I was miserable. The seat was plenty wide and deep and I guess it reclined and there was a footrest. The problem (and maybe I was unlucky) was that the seat cushion was not cushiony but rather hard, and by the time an hour had gone by my behind was in agony. I wandered up and down the aisle periodically, which helped a tiny bit. At one point, in the small hours, I went to where I could stretch out and sleep, which was on the bench seats in the closed and darkened café car. That was okay, until a lovely young couple decided to have exuberant and noisy sex in the bathroom a few feet away. I had to admire the young man’s stamina, but it was more than I could take and after 20 minutes I left my nest and went back to my seat. I think if I had been facing two nights of that seat, I would have gotten off at the first city of any size and submitted to the humiliation of flying.
The other complaint I have about the Coast Starlight is that all the best scenery on that leg of the trip was all at night. At least going north. I seem to remember nothing at all about the return trip.
Mostly, I hate it.
Amtrak will just suffice as a commuter train. No frills, just get you from A → B.
For longer trips…forget it.
The cars are about as utilitarian as is possible. They do the job but not in any nice or pleasant way.
The food on longer trips is meh at best. Airplane food on a train (maybe a tick better).
The staff…best I can say is they do their job…but only just. There is nothing nice about the service. Staff is just as polite as they need to be and not more. They are just as attentive as they need to be and not more. Mostly they exude the sense that you are bugging them but they have to deal with you. It is the bare minimum the whole way on Amtrak and the experience sucks. Thing is, they are very well paid (union).
Which might be fine if they were a cheap form of transport but they really are not cheap.
Other trains I have been on (mostly in Europe) blow Amtrak away (although I have some quibbles with them too).
I am eager to see how that new private train line in Florida will work. I hope they put Amtrak out of business (I know Amtrak is quasi-government…still hope they get replaced by something better).
That depends on the train. East coast long distance trains have what Amtrak calls “flexible dining”, which are basically TV dinners. Western routes have “traditional dining” which is prepared fresh on the train. Both have the cafe car for casual eats, which is basically just microwaveable stuff like Digiorno pizzas and hot dogs. On the commuter routes, it varies - the Cascades, which runs from Eugene to Vancouver, serves Ivar’s clam chowder onboard which is delicious.
I’ve generally had good luck using my phone as a hotspot: even in middle-of-nowhere Montana I can usually get enough of a signal for text at least. YMM, of course, V: not all wireless plans allow hotspots, and resellers such as Cricket and Boost may not have the same coverage as the first-tier carriers.
Absolutely endorse the suggestion for a power strip; I have a one-foot triplex cord stowed in my backpack for that express purpose. Besides having one outlet — if that — in some of the older Superliner roomettes the outlet is recessed, making a power adapter unusable.
I’ll take Amtrak over an intercity bus.
I cannot comment on Amtrak, as I’ve never taken it. But I have taken Via Rail in Canada.
I heard about Amtrak’s “just serve reheated airline meals” in the east. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to have spread to the western United States, if @Smapti is correct, and I have no reason to doubt him.
Reheated airline meals don’t exist on Via; at least, not the last time I rode a long-distance Via train. And there is nothing nicer than a meal in the dining car of a train, prepared by real chefs and real cooks in a real kitchen. There should be bar service too, so you can have a cocktail and some wine with your meal (on Via, these cost extra). Plus, you get to know your fellow passengers.
If you get the chance to eat in a real dining car with freshly-prepared meals on Amtrak—I’d suggest that you take it.
Me too. Every time.
I did intercity bus when in college. Not a fan. I’d choose train over that any time.
But, intercity bus is less expensive which is a consideration.
Well, there is the Colorado River, which eventually reaches the Pacific Ocean, then down to Panama, thru the Canal, east past Florida and then north along the US to the Potomac River and Washington, DC.
But that might be a bit slower even than Amtrak. 
Regarding taking Amtrak (or Via) over an intercity bus.
Oh, gosh, yes. Longest bus trip I ever took was Toronto to New York City; and yes, I was a college student. Of course, we took the bus back. It was 12 hours each way. The train (had a Toronto-New York train been running at the time) might have taken about the same amount of time, but it would have been a lot more comfortable.
Nope. It does not anymore (it used to):
The Colorado River no longer reaches the Gulf, and instead peters out of existence miles short of the sea.
Well, the Chicago-Toronto routes went through the tunnel between Sarnia, Ontario; and Port Huron, Michigan, possibly with a diversion to Detroit, but you have a valid point.
Canadian National ran trains between Montreal and Chicago back in the day (think the 1950s). Via/Amtrak also did, back in the early 2000s—I well remember boarding an Ottawa train in Toronto Union in about 2002, and on the next track was an Amtrak train bound for Chicago.
I’m unsure why the only American connection Toronto has now is New York City. Chicago has so many connections, that it seems silly not to have a Toronto-Chicago train.
Pretty much every Amtrak route serves alcohol in the cafe car - they’ll typically have five or six kinds of beer (a mix of macrobrews and IPA on my most recent trip), a small wine selection, and liquor in the same kind of mini bottles they use on airplanes.
I’m not sure, but I think it’s because of the Viewliner/Superliner split that someone else mentioned above. The eastern routes use the single-decker Viewliners because there are older tunnels around NYC that are too small for the double-decker Superliners. On the Superliner, the kitchen takes up the entire bottom deck of the diner car. The Viewliners must have to smush it onto one side of the car, so there’s presumably a lot less room for prepping or cooking fresh food.
I think the planned replacement for the Superliner is going to be single-deck, so I certainly hope that their introduction doesn’t mean the end of fresh-cooked meals in the west.
Amtrak dining cars have booths that seat four each, so unless you’re a foursome you’ll likely get paired up with someone. On my trip in April I got seated mostly with elderly couples (a lot of old folks take the train in this country) who were frequent riders, and we had some decent light conversation while waiting for our meals to come.
Aside from the steak I mentioned above, they serve a pretty good burger at lunchtime, and there’s also a grilled chicken entree that comes with risotto (Risotto on a train! Will wonders ever cease?). Their french toast is the highlight of the breakfast menu, but you can also get scrambled eggs or an omelette with home fries and your choice of bacon or sausage.