Coast Starlight

The Coast Starlight runs every day between Los Angeles and Seattle — 1,377 miles up the West Coast through California, Oregon and Washington, in about 34 hours northbound and 35 southbound, with one night on board. On the way it calls at Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Jose, Oakland, Sacramento, Klamath Falls, Eugene and Portland.

It has run since Amtrak's first day, 1 May 1971, and was the first train to link Seattle and Los Angeles directly. The name joins two Southern Pacific trains it replaced: the Coast Daylight and the Starlight.

What sets it apart is the sequence of landscapes in a single ride. Out of Los Angeles the train runs along the Pacific shore north of Santa Barbara, climbs the Cuesta Grade out of San Luis Obispo and follows the Salinas Valley to the Bay Area. North of Sacramento come the Sacramento River canyon, Mount Shasta and the Klamath basin, then a crossing of the Cascade Range at 4,852 ft before the Willamette Valley, Portland and Puget Sound.

Train 14 leaves Los Angeles Union Station at 09:51 and runs north-west through the San Fernando and Simi valleys to the sea at Ventura. From there to Santa Barbara the track runs between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the shore, and beyond Santa Barbara it keeps to the coast on the stretch the Southern Pacific finished last: the 80-mile gap between Santa Barbara and Surf was closed on 28 December 1900. Towards Surf the line crosses Vandenberg Space Force Base, a rocket launch site on the Gaviota Coast.

The Central Coast

At Surf the line turns inland across the mouth of the Santa Ynez River and through Guadalupe to San Luis Obispo, then climbs the Cuesta Grade — a 2.2 % gradient, the steepest on the Coast Line between Los Angeles and San Francisco — through a horseshoe curve and six tunnels over the Santa Lucia Range. North of the pass it follows the Salinas Valley past Paso Robles to Salinas, then crosses to the Bay Area at San Jose.

The Bay Area and the Sacramento Valley

Around the east side of San Francisco Bay the train calls at Oakland and Emeryville, then runs on by Martinez to Sacramento, reached just before midnight. Northbound, the Sacramento Valley, Redding and the climb into the upper Sacramento River canyon at Dunsmuir all pass in the dark.

Shasta and the Cascades

In summer, dawn comes near Mount Shasta, 14,179 ft, which the line skirts on its way to Klamath Falls and the high Klamath basin. Beyond Chemult it crosses the Cascades on the Southern Pacific's Natron Cutoff, opened in 1926, topping out at Cascade Summit, 4,852 ft, then descends through Douglas fir forest high above the Salt Creek canyon to Eugene. The afternoon is the Willamette Valley, Salem and Portland, and the evening the run north through Olympia and Tacoma to Seattle.

The train itself

The Coast Starlight is made up of Amtrak's double-deck Superliner cars — sleeping cars, a dining car, a Sightseer Lounge with windows curving into the roof, and coaches — usually behind two locomotives: GE P42DC "Genesis" diesels or the Siemens ALC-42 Chargers that first worked the train in 2023. Until February 2018 it also carried the Pacific Parlour Car, a 1956 Santa Fe lounge for sleeping-car passengers, which Amtrak then withdrew.

The Coast Starlight runs once a day in each direction, all year. Northbound, train 14 leaves Los Angeles at 09:51 and reaches Seattle at 19:51 the next day, 34 hours later. Southbound, train 11 leaves Seattle at 09:55 and reaches Los Angeles at 21:11 the next day, 35 hours 16 minutes later. Every seat and room is reserved.

All times below are local — the whole route is on Pacific time — and the day is counted from departure.

Good to know:

• Which way round for the coast. The shore between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo comes in the early afternoon northbound, between about 12:15 and 15:05. Southbound it is 15:37 to 18:19, so in winter northbound is the surer bet for daylight.
• Which way round for the mountains. Mount Shasta and the Cascades are a northbound sight: Dunsmuir to Eugene runs between about 05:00 and 12:40. Southbound, Klamath Falls and Dunsmuir come after dark.
• The times move. Amtrak's timetable is generated for a single date rather than a season. The times above are from the one for 29 September 2026; a booking for 6 January 2027 showed train 14 with the same departure and arrival. Check your own date.
• Leave slack. The train runs mostly on Union Pacific freight lines, so allow time before any onward connection.

Times as of September 2026, from Amtrak's published timetable for 29 September 2026. Confirm before travelling on amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

Every seat and room on the Coast Starlight is reserved, and fares move with demand rather than sitting on a published table. Sampling Amtrak's booking engine in September 2026 for one adult, Los Angeles to Seattle on Wednesday 6 January 2027, gave Coach from $112, a Roomette at $526, a Bedroom at $1,062 and a Family Room at $1,064 — each room price for the room, up to two adults (the Family Room adds two children). Book early, and book direct.

Coach is a reclining seat with the Sightseer Lounge and the café. A room adds a bed, an attendant and all meals in the dining car; the Bedroom adds its own washroom and shower. Fares checked September 2026 at amtrak.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars, one way.

Interrail and Eurail do not apply anywhere in the United States. The pass that does is Amtrak's own USA Rail Pass: $499 for 10 segments over 30 days, in Coach only — upgrades to a Roomette or Bedroom are not available on it. A segment is one boarding and one alighting, so riding Los Angeles to Seattle straight through uses one of the ten. The pass is valid for 120 days from purchase, and each segment has to be booked through Amtrak before you board.

For the Coast Starlight alone it is not worth buying. Coach from Los Angeles to Seattle sampled at $112, under a quarter of the pass price. It pays when the Coast Starlight is one leg of a bigger loop — breaking the ride at San Luis Obispo and Klamath Falls, say, and then heading east on the California Zephyr or the Empire Builder — and only if you are happy to sit up for the nights on board.

Checked September 2026 against amtrak.com/usa-rail-pass (opens in a new tab).

The Coast Starlight runs once a day, so breaking the journey means a night off the train and a new reservation for the next day's departure. Portland and Seattle have their own cards on the Empire Builder's page, and Sacramento and the Bay Area on the California Zephyr's; the places below are the ones this line has to itself, from south to north.

Three places to break the ride, each a stay you could not have anywhere else on the line: a themed roadside inn at San Luis Obispo, restored cabooses beneath Castle Crags at Dunsmuir, and the lodge on the rim of Crater Lake, a drive north of Klamath Falls and open from May to October only.

Planning this trip and stuck on something, or spotted a time, fare or detail that has changed? Send us a message about Coast Starlight. We read every one, and we update this page when something has changed.