Amtrak Coast Starlight/dimview (# 0778)

Amtrak Coast dimview at the San Luis Obispo depot. The car on the immediate right is the lounge car, designed with extra large (and thus extra dirty) windows for viewing the scenery.

Would I ride Amtrak again? Definitely if its one of the newer, comparatively short-distance trains, run only in California and operated jointly between Amtrak and the counties/state. A long-distance, interstate, Amtrak? I’m not at all sure. I heard (second-hand) that the Southwest Chief (LA-Chicago) gets a thorough washing mid-trip (Albuquerque), so that might work. I’ve also ridden the California Zephyr (SF/Oakland-Chicago) and enjoyed it, but the last time I did that was 20 years ago at a time when Congress gave Amtrak sufficient funding. I don’t see any way to know which trains get cleaned often enough, which might be part of the current congressional efforts to kill Amtrak.