Amtrak Cascades

I love this train. Hopefully you get to ride it when legendary Larry is working. He’ll narrate the incredible scenery while giving you the funnest history class you’ve taken. I’ve had to take it from Seattle to Portland 3x in 3 weeks and I would like to take it every day. I’m able to plug in and work with the free Wi-​Fi, yes it has issues from time to time but it’s working well today! Sometimes the train is late but not any fault of Amtrak. The freighters block up the tracks on occasion and when there’s only one track there isn’t anything the can really do about it. I don’t ever want to drive again after taking this the last 3 weeks.

If you don’t mind being delayed 2+ hrs. on a 1h50min. trip, meaning 4+ hrs. total travel time for what took me 1 hr. to drive earlier today from the opposite direction, by all means, take Amtrak Cascades. Announcements re: delays? Not unless you ask. Hey, Elon Musk & Charles Bombardier, I implore you to fix this mess. I feel like I’m stuck in 1999.

Beautiful ride almost the entire way from Seattle to Canada.

We got tickets at the business class thinking it would be a more comfortable train ride. It was not! First class is an open car accommodating about 20 people. We were happy at the beginning to see we only had another couple and a woman with her elderly parents in the same car with us. We couldn’t have been more wrong as they were the most inconsiderate, annoying people to travel with. They wouldn’t cease yapping and laughing and snorting and yawning out loud, and burping and sharing private stories with no shame or consideration. Pretty much in the first hour we learned a great bunch of details of these peoples lives, and we eventually had to shove headphones into our years and listen to loud music for the rest of the trip to cover their loud voices.
We traveled first class on a train in Europe and we had a private booth and people around were polite and having discrete conversations. Of course it is not Amtrak’s fault that people are rude and uncivilized, but maybe they should consider offering a more private type of accommodation for first class travelers, because that is the whole idea of paying extra money.
The view of the water was nice for a while until it got dark, and the train was clean and fast enough, we got to Vancouver on time.

Sit in the café car and be amazed. Loved this ride to and from Vancouver BC. 4 hours of little towns going by and right off the water and over bridges. Lovely. The engineers are a riot. Had a great time chatting with them. Make sure to catch a pic of the cute town of White Rock.

I rode the 11:15 AM Cascades train from Seattle to Portland on August 27. The boarding process at Seattle was uncomplicated, a far cry from airport «security theater.»
The Cascades service (Vancouver-​Seattle-​Portland-​Eugene, with bus connections farther afield) is operated with comfortable, modern Talgo equipment owned by the Washington and Oregon Transportation Departments, rather than Amtrak. There are two generations of Talgos in service; my train was one of the older group. Big windows are good for sightseeing, though curtains (which couldn’t be pushed completely out of the way) partially obscured the view. The bistro car, near the front of the train, had only one attendant, and developed a bit of a line after departure from Seattle. There’s an adjacent car with tables, but no waiter service.
The only downside was timekeeping: the train left Seattle about an hour late, and did not make up time en route. One delay of a few minutes for a meet with a freight train. I’m told the 11:15 southbound departure, which originates in Vancouver at 6:30 in the morning, is particularly susceptible to delays.

Great service and views. Just wish they would serve us in our seats. Other than that, it was late leaving and arriving due to heat wave. Everything they could control was very good.

about 30 min late and we hit two «layovers» waiting for trains to pass. already 30 min longer scheduled trip than Boltbus or Greyhoud and the 1 hr 50 min car trip easily passes the 3.5 hour mark on amtrak, which costs nearly twice as much.
no wifi, their system seems screwy – redirects both my laptop and phone to the same page looped over and over. I will still give them 3 stars since it really is more comfortable than even boltbus by a large margin (and is leagues above nasty greyhound) and the views/​lack of freeway traffic are pretty awesome. you would think with the billions in government subsidies amtrak gets that it would he a bit more affordable and smoother running but c’est la vie.

I’m convinced this is the only way to travel from Seattle to Vancouver. Comfortable, scenic ride with plenty to look at. Trees, farms, ocean, AND eagles. (bonus!) When you get tired of looking outside you can browse your device using the free wifi on board. My only complaint would be that the seats were a bit dated and the train wasn’t in terrific condition, otherwise everything was perfect. You can’t beat the affordability and the convenience!

For our family of 5 this was the cheapest option. And the train station was much closer to our hotel than the hour drive from Seatac. However, it was SLOW with many delays. We were over an hour late to the station. The luggage took much longer than any airport arrival as well. So in the end we saved ourselves a lot of money and no time. If you are in it for a cheap ride and like the scenery, this is your best pick. If you have anywhere to be on time, fly.

Fairly good experience on the train from Seattle to Centralia. The train was surprisingly on time, which has not been my experience with previous Amtrak trains.
Unfortunately the wifi did not work at all. Unbelievable that Amtrak can’t figure this out after 5+ years of claiming to have wifi.
A much more relaxing experience than driving though with some very scenic views to boot.

Love the train. Good food and scenery. Little outdated for the amount people pay. But I enjoy it overall

This is my first time talking a train. Since we didn’t need a car in Vancouver, this was the perfect opportunity to experience a train ride. Since the tracks just reopened after a land slide, the train was very uncrowded. The train has Wi-​Fi (which I am having trouble with) and power plugs by each seat (which didn’t work in my car). The border crossing was a breeze.
A scenic and relaxing ride

The wort part is they assign seats. I got a crappy aisle seat (wanted the window!) and it’s really close and seats are small and cramped with the person (in my case a stranger) next to you. Train is having electrical problems and it is running and hour late. Very cold and uncomfortable. I usually love trains. Not this one.

It was my first time taking the train. I traveled from Eugene-​Tacoma, about 6 hours in total. There were about 6 stops between Eugene and Tacoma, but the train only stops for a minute or two to let passengers on and off.
The ride to Tacoma was pretty seamless. There was an issue with a car that stalled on the tracks that delayed the trip about 15 minutes, but that’s about it. The train was spacious and pretty comfortable. I had a row to myself the whole trip. It sorta felt like the first class section of an airplane, with big seats and nice leg room. There are giant windows which allow for some pretty spectacular views along the way, too. There are charging outlets beneath the armrests of every seat.
However not all Amtrak Cascade train cars are built alike. On the way back (Tacoma to Eugene) the train was a noticeably older one. Instead of newly upholstered seats, they were worn down «leather» ones. Very few charging outlets, and an overall «used» feeling. While it was still pretty enjoyable, it was a bit less comfortable than my first ride.
As other commenters have noted, the Wi-​Fi was pretty shotty. I tried streaming some media on my mobile device, and could only really connect when the train was stopped to pick up passengers. That being said, I noticed another passenger who had the new iphone that had a the global wifi feature, and he had no problem streaming, so it may come down to what kind of device you have and who your provider is.
Overall, I was pretty pleased with the experience and will definitely used the train again. Had there been no wi-​fi issues, this would be an easy 5-​star experience.

Fantastic train ride! You get the beauty of natural setting and the views outside the train, but you also get a comfy, fast ride. Taking the train is better than the bus and a trip from Seattle to Portland goes by fast if you’re taking advantage of their WIFI. The four hour trip was perfect for getting some serious work done. In fact, the WIFI didn’t fail me once! I was quite surprised with the quality and speed of the service.
The trains are a teeny bit dated and things don’t look or feel as new or as fancy as one would hope for in Business Class. But the affordability of the ticket and the chance to board first makes it all worth while.
The train itself is pretty quiet and at least in Business Class, everyone is respecting each other’s privacy pretty well. No one taking phone calls, no loud conversations. Just a lot of people on their laptops getting work done. Very convenient! I’ll be taking the train to Portland more often now that I realize I can relax more if I don’t drive myself or take a bus.

I’m a fan of Amtrak Cascades, having taken it from Vancouver to Bellingham, to Seattle, to Portland, and most recently this weekend to Olympia and back. The conductors are pleasant, and the journey is often on time and scenic. It’s a civilised way to travel across the border and up and down the Pacific Northwest. Give it a shot.

We booked our train ride from Seattle to Vancouver thinking this would be a full-​on relaxing scenic northbound ride up the coast. It was far from that. Too many stops to get really «relaxed» and to top it off, the air-​condition in our cabin was not functioning so it was a good 90 degrees Fahrenheit before one of the employees finally noticed and fixed it. Don’t get me wrong, it is indeed a «scenic» ride, but maybe I was expecting a more pleasant and cooler trip for the 4 hours that it was.

Totally writing this review while on the train because the free WiFi is awesome! Super easy to connect and it actually works (way more than I can say about the free «wifi» offered at my hotel).
I’d 5 star the ride, with the exception that they’re so quick to assign seats that we got stuck with the eastbound view rather than the ocean view (bummer).
FYI I think the cart numbering is as follows:
1,2,5,6,9,10,13,14,17,18,21,22,25,26,29,30,33,34 = Westbound/​Ocean view
The other numbers are the stateside view.
Book your rides early and you save 25% off your ride.

Completely painless and awesome way to get to Canada.
I spent months planning a crazy trip that had a lot of ins, and lot of outs, a lot of what-​have-​yous…
Bottom line is that the main part of this trip was a Pacific Coastal cruise leaving from Vancouver. I discovered that I could add a brief stop in Seattle to this trip (and save a few hundred bucks) by taking the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver. And it would be a fun train ride! And one less flight (I hate flying).
We landed in Seattle on a Thursday afternoon and took the 7:30am (I think?) Amtrak Friday morning. Since we were still on Eastern and Central time zones, waking up in the morning and getting there on time was not an issue.
We took a cab to the station, got our bags checked and all that and along came the train. I hadn’t taken an extended train ride since I took it from Hinton, WV to Chicago when I was in like 3^rd grade so I was excited.
I didn’t really use the wifi so I can’t attest to that.
I rather enjoyed the snack car and had a sandwich from there for lunch.
Like someone else mentioned, the border crossing was basically a nonevent. They informed us we were crossing into Canada more so people could do whatever they needed to do with cell phones to avoid crazy charges.
As we got closer to Vancouver, the conductors came over the intercom and said that if anyone could sing the Canadian national anthem, they could get off first. A handful of brave souls attempted it and perhaps two were successful. It was quite humorous. I didn’t attempt it because I only know the first two words.
A funny aside, the two dudes that were sitting across the aisle from us ended up being on our cruise and we saw them EVERYWHERE the entire week.
The scenary was also top notch. Oh and my sister didn’t get sick. Bonus!