Sunset Limited

The Sunset Limited runs three times a week in each direction between New Orleans and Los Angeles — 1,995 miles across Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, in about 46 hours with two nights on board. On the way it calls at Lafayette, Houston, San Antonio, Alpine, El Paso and Tucson. It is the most southerly of Amtrak's routes to the West Coast.

Its name is the oldest on any American train. The Southern Pacific introduced it in 1894 as an all-Pullman train of sleeping cars from New Orleans to San Francisco; Amtrak took it over on 1 May 1971 and kept the name, which makes it, in Amtrak's words, "the oldest named train in the United States still operating". For twelve years from 1993 it ran on to Florida, Amtrak's only coast-to-coast train, until Hurricane Katrina cut it back to New Orleans in 2005.

What sets it apart is the run of country between the two cities: the bayous and the Atchafalaya of south Louisiana, the gorge of the Pecos and the Big Bend country of west Texas, the Rio Grande at El Paso, and the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona.

Train 1 leaves New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal at 09:00 and within minutes is high above the Mississippi on the Huey P. Long Bridge. Beyond Schriever it crosses the Atchafalaya at Berwick Bay, then runs through the bayou country of south Louisiana to New Iberia and Lafayette, reached at lunchtime. The afternoon brings Lake Charles and then Beaumont, the first stop in Texas; Houston comes in the evening.

West Texas

The train reaches San Antonio in the night. From here west it runs combined with the Texas Eagle: a sleeper and a coach from Chicago are added for Los Angeles. Del Rio is passed before dawn, and early in the morning the train crosses the Pecos on its high bridge of 1944. Sanderson and Alpine, the station for Big Bend, follow through the morning, and in the early afternoon the train reaches El Paso, with Ciudad Juárez across the Rio Grande.

The desert

In New Mexico the train calls at Deming, where in March 1881 the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific drove a silver spike to complete the country's second transcontinental line, and at Lordsburg. It enters Arizona in the late afternoon and reaches Tucson in the evening, then Maricopa, the stop for Phoenix: the Sunset Limited has bypassed Phoenix itself since 1996, and an Amtrak Connection bus runs on to Tempe, the airport and the city. Yuma and Palm Springs pass in the small hours, and the train reaches Los Angeles Union Station at 05:35 on the third day.

Eastbound the pattern turns round. Train 2 leaves Los Angeles at 22:00 and crosses California at night; Arizona from Maricopa, New Mexico and El Paso come by day; west Texas is crossed in the evening and the night, and Louisiana in the afternoon and evening of the third day, before New Orleans at 21:40.

The train itself

The Sunset Limited is made up of Amtrak's double-deck Superliner cars: a sleeper, a dining car, a Sightseer Lounge, a coach and a coach-baggage car, plus the Chicago sleeper and coach west of San Antonio. One or two GE P42DC "Genesis" diesels have long been the usual power, and Amtrak is replacing them with Siemens ALC-42 Chargers — one was leading train 2 through Texas in September 2026.

The Sunset Limited runs three times a week in each direction, all year. Westbound, train 1 leaves New Orleans at 09:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and reaches Los Angeles at 05:35 two days later, 46 hours 35 minutes on. Eastbound, train 2 leaves Los Angeles at 22:00 on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays and reaches New Orleans at 21:40 two days later, 45 hours 40 minutes on. Every seat and room is reserved.

All times below are local. The train crosses the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones, and the day is counted from departure.

Good to know:

• The Saturday train west and the Sunday train east skip Ontario and Pomona. Every other stop is served on every run.
• Days matter more than on a daily train. Breaking the journey means two or three days until the next train in the same direction, so plan stopovers around the Monday, Wednesday and Saturday departures west, or Wednesday, Friday and Sunday east.
• The desert by day, either way. El Paso to Tucson falls in the afternoon westbound and the morning eastbound. West Texas from Sanderson to El Paso is a westbound sight; eastbound it comes in the evening and the night.
• Phoenix is a bus from Maricopa. Amtrak's Connection bus meets trains at Maricopa for Tempe, Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and Phoenix, and Amtrak books it with the train.
• The times move. Amtrak's timetable is generated for a single date rather than a season; the times above are from the one for 12 November 2026. Check your own date, and leave slack for onward connections — the train runs on freight railways.

Times as of November 2026, from Amtrak's published timetable for 12 November 2026. Confirm before travelling on amtrak.com (opens in a new tab).

Every seat and room on the Sunset Limited is reserved, and fares move with demand rather than sitting on a published table. A search of Amtrak's booking engine in November 2026 for one adult, New Orleans to Los Angeles on Wednesday 6 January 2027, gave Coach from $198 and private rooms from $1,045, the room price covering up to two adults. Business class is not offered on this train. 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 November 2026 at amtrak.com (opens in a new tab); US dollars, one way.

Amtrak's own USA Rail Pass covers the Sunset Limited. It costs $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 New Orleans to Los Angeles 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 Sunset Limited alone it is not worth buying. Coach from New Orleans to Los Angeles sampled at $198, well under the pass price. It pays when the Sunset is one leg of a bigger loop — stopping off at San Antonio, Alpine and Tucson, say, and then heading north on the Coast Starlight — and only if you are happy to sit up for the nights on board. With three trains a week, every stopover is two or three days long.

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

The Sunset Limited runs three days a week, so a stopover means two or three days off the train before the next one in the same direction. The places below are listed from east to west; Los Angeles has its own card on the Coast Starlight's page.

Three places to stay, one at each end of the desert and one in New Orleans: the Monteleone in the French Quarter, the Holland Hotel in Alpine for Big Bend, and Hotel Congress in Tucson, built in 1919 for passengers off the Southern Pacific.

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