http://www.usa-by-rail.com/html/amtrak_passes.html
[wp_campaign_2]A Rail Pass does not entitle you to just hop on any train you want at any time – you must make a reservation and then pick up a physical ticket for each segment. Unfortunately, Amtrak does not have a way for you to book your Rail Pass routes online, so you must speak to one of their agents to make your reservations.
If you can get a sleeping room at all; there are a limited number of them on the long-haul trains, and depending on the route, and the time of year, they can book up well in advance.
I can’t completely justify the fare difference between sleeper class and coach class, but there are a few mitigating pieces to it. What you get for the extra cost is a (teensy) private compartment complete with a car attendant to put up and take down the bed, a ‘down the hall’ shower, and hot coffee most any time you want it. The sleeper class passengers are jointly considered “first class”. In some stations, there’s a separate lounge where first class passengers can sit a little more comfortably while waiting for the train, and that’s where the good WiFi will be. Also, the cost of all dining car meals are included in the price of a sleeper car ticket – excluding alcohol, naturally enough.
IMHO, trains have got fellow-traveler camaraderie that you don’t find other places. There’s time to meet and talk to others, and there’s some chance to stand up and walk around, ungraceful though that can be.
All trains have got a view car with big windows and a few tables. Some trains have volunteers who give ‘ranger talks’ in the view car.
Sure, there’s bugs in the system, but I’m still a rail fan.
I wonder, what was the cross-county train trip *really *like during the heyday of Ameirican railroads? I think we all have the nostalgic romantic ideal that we got from Hollywood and travel posters, but was it ever that easy and luxurious?
I highly doubt it. Even those who romanticize the so-called golden age of air travel tend to forget quite a lot. Remember how fun it was losing paper tickets? The fun of booking all travel through a travel agent? Nothing to do on the plane besides smoke, drink, and read?
I don’t know what qualifies as “that luxurious,” but it was easy and comfortable. If you haven’t ridden a train during the heyday, I suggest watching one of the old promos available on You Tube to get an idea, such as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dl_LoQ4vHDc
And it’s not a just hop on a train and go type of deal, you have to make advance reservations for each ride. For long distance rides it may not a bad deal as the price $50-$60 per segment. But if you planning to ride, say, the Texas Eagle from Chicago to San Antonio and get off between it is expensive compared to the regular fares.
For example, on the Texas Eagle, each of these stops costs you a segment using the pass (with Amtrak’s value fare in parenthesis): Chicago-St Louis ($27), St Louis-Little Rock ($57), Little Rock-Fort Worth ($64), Fort Worth-San Antonio ($36).
So if looking for value and convenience in the pass, it depends on how you schedule your trip. If just looking for fun and relaxing with no worry as to your schedule it is a great way to see huge chunks of the country.
I just did the RailPass thing last year and it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Went from California to Chicago and then New York, and then back the other route (there are 3 cross-country routes, I believe).
As others have said, the RailPass just gets you a certain number of on-and-offs, but it’s totally worth it for cross-country trips. I did the 2-week one, but they have 7-day and 30-day ones as well. It is an additional upgrade to a sleeper car, but if I remember correctly, it was a MUCH better deal to go from a RailPass ticket to a sleeper car than to pay for the sleeper car outright. I am not completely certain of the math, though, so double-check.
The thing about the RailPass is that Amtrak is VERY good about schedule and route changes. Stop somewhere you like and want to spend a few more days there? No problem, call them up and they’ll change your ticket for no charge. At most you might have to head back to the train station before departure to pick up the new ticket (their e-ticketing system isn’t very good). Try doing that with airfare.
And yes, you do have to plan on connecting routes and transfering a lot, but that’s part of the fun 
I ended up moving to a city I was passing through, which I never would’ve even visited if I were flying.
If you get delayed somewhere overnight, call guest relations and they’ll typically reimburse you for a hotel stay.
If you have good credit, consider signing up for the Amtrak Rewards credit card before you buy anything, and then use it for all the stuff on your trains, upgrades and all. You get cool signup bonuses (like free upgrades or rides) and a bunch of points.
There will be no wifi onboard (except along the Eastern Seaboard, where Amtrak has all their fancier trains. The rest of the system is run on shitty old equipment, decades old). Cell phone coverage will be spotty. Plan for it. There are chargers on board though.
That’s just the logistical stuff up there. The actual experience is quite surreal. Depending on the time of the year, you’ll either see a lot of retirees, some people from a religious cult (they remind me of the Amish, but I forget their particular denomination… I think they are not allowed to fly but can travel by train?), or maybe youngsters on a sojourn. Very few people travel by train anymore, and those who do typically choose to on purpose because it’s such a different experience. The view car is awesome, with wide bench seating you can lie down and read on, or just watch the landscape roll by. The dining cart (all your meals are included if you go for a sleeper car) serves acceptable food, nothing to write home about but better than airline food. You get seated with strangers at shared tables so you can meet new people and learn cool things about them and why they travel by train. People from all over the country and the world ride Amtrak, either for nostalgia or novelty.
It’s definitely a very inefficient way to travel, but a unique one that’s worth experiencing at least once in your life. Whereas in Europe it’s a way to get from points A to B, here it’s just a way to take a long, moving vacation through some beautiful countryside, often even without roads. Of course, you can only do it if you have time, and that means you don’t get a lot of time at your actual destinations. The journey itself is what you’d have to be interested in.
Some Amish, but mostly Mennonites. We see lots of them at Chicago Union Station. They travel by train to visit relatives because the trains stop in small cities throughout Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.
This is super fascinating. What is it about their beliefs that makes them go by train? Wikipedia wasn’t clear on that topic.
I’ve seen Mennonites traveling by air, too, so it’s not considered absolutely prohibited by at least some congregations (each Amish and Mennonite congregation makes its own rules, so there’s some variation). “Simplicity” in general is valued, but that’s usually vaguely defined. Most likely, it’s just what Mr Downtown said: They’re traveling to visit relatives and friends, and the kinds of places their relatives and friends live are more likely to have a train station than an airport.
Well, as I understand it, they have the belief that the train will take them close to where their relatives live. 
“English” farm families would make similar journeys in the family minivan, but that’s not generally an option for some Mennonites and most Amish.
If you like Amtrak, you’ll love Via Rail (the Canadian passenger railway.) I’ve ridden it numerous times from Montreal to Halifax. It’s awesome. The sleepers are more comfortable more similar to a miniaturized hotel room than the ones on Amtrak, which are more similar to what I imagine the sleeping compartments on submarines to be like. The latter are not exactly terrible, they still beat the hell out of coach, but there’s much less elbow room and the “furnishings” more spartan.
All the people who work on the Amtrak trains absolutely bust ass to help their guests, they take their jobs very seriously, all the porters and engineers and dining staff are cool as shit to just banter with and talk to (which there’s plenty of time to do.) There are frequent delays, train or track malfunctions, and getting to your destination at the intended time is not ever a guarantee - but the people on those trains really work very hard to coordinate everything, and it’s a lot of work.
This is the sort of no-nonsense religion I could get behind
A few years back my wife and I went from NJ to Oregon in sleeper cars, it was one of those things I had always wanted to do.
The trip was faster than I expected, having made the same trip several times by car over the years–we left Monday morning and arrived Thursday morning. We took a regional train to DC, had a small sleeper from DC to Chicago, and a large bedroom from there to Portland. Plenty of shakes and rattles, and mediocre food, but we had fun.
I recommend doing a trip like this some day.
Boy Scouts. When I was on, it was a ton of Boy Scouts, all going to a Jamboree in NM. They all got off at Raton. Got very quiet and empty very fast.
Mostly well behaved. They kept them all together in the same car at least. 
If those were Boy Scouts, they all deserved badges for exceptional beards 
Something that’s been touched on several times but bears repeating: Amtrak is not for those who need to be “in control” or are obsessive about schedule.
Case in point: several years ago I was going to Chicago and found that for some reason leaving from Portland was considerably less expensive than from Seattle (the eastbound Empire Builder originates in both cities and joins up in Spokane). So I took the Cascades to Portland. When I got there and checked in, I was told that the westbound train had been hit by a car* in North Dakota and delayed. Turns out that it didn’t arrive until about four hours after it was scheduled to depart, and despite the turnaround crew busting their butts it was five hours late leaving. They did manage to make up a couple of hours, which was remarkable given that the train was outside the window when it (theoretically) had priority; still, a Type-A would have been climbing the walls and/or retaining an attorney. As it was, it was just another topic for discussion at mealtimes or in the lounge car.
(Sidenote: about three hours out of Chicago it was announced that Amtrak reps would be boarding at the next stop and would be available in the lounge and dining cars to assist those who had missed connections. Granted that it’s not feasible to parachute people into an airplane, I’ve never heard of an airline providing anything even close to that level of customer service.)
*Subject and object are correct: the car hit the moving train. My understanding is that there were no fatalities or serious injuries, but the train had to wait till the NTSB and FRA (the rail equivalent of the FAA) cleared it to proceed.
Yup. In the summer, Chicago Union Station sees lots of Boy Scouts headed to, or returning from, Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, N.M. Raton, on the Southwest Chief route, is the nearest station.
It’s always interesting to try to guess, based on energy level and number of Band-Aids, whether a particular troop is headed there or returning from a week of hiking and trailwork.
AIUI Amtrak owns 0 tracks, and even on the NE corridor freight traffic takes precedence. On the NE corridor (between Boston and DC) Amtrak trains have been granted right of way only if they are on time or close to on time, and a delay removes their right of way and freight traffic takes precedence. If anyone has any verifiable details on this, I’d love to learn more or have my “knowledge” corrected.