Travel to California

Travel by rail

The Amtrak (tel: 1 800 872 7245, in the USA only; www.amtrak.com) terminal in Los Angeles is Union Station, at 800 North Alameda Street, on the edge of the business district. It is at the western end of several major routes across the southern Rockies, is the southern terminus of the West Coast line to Seattle (although there are frequent shuttle services heading further south to San Diego), and at the western end of east-west routes from Chicago, St Louis and New Orleans.

In San Francisco, the Embarcadero BART station and the Transbay Terminal, at 425 Mission Street, are used only for limited suburban services. The Amtrak Terminal at Oakland, across the Bay, is the central node on the West Coast line and also the western terminus of a line running across the high Rockies to Salt Lake City and beyond. Amtrak provides free shuttles between their Oakland station and the Transbay Terminal.

San Diego is served by Amtrak trains from Los Angeles, with a station located downtown, on 4005 Taylor Street.

Approximate rail journey times:
From Los Angeles to Phoenix is 8 hours, to Dallas is 39 hours, and to Chicago is 61 hours.
From Oakland to Reno is 6 hours, to Salt Lake City is 16 hours, and to Denver is 31 hours.