Amtrak

I Never ride a f… g train again! Always delayed, great for old people or big family. Plus to expensive.

people were very helpful, easy on and off. If questions, just ask the employees at the counter.
TIP: if you are on the 8:30am train, do NOT get there before 8am as they do not open til then. Even though the tickets say to get there an hour and a half before your train leaves.
TIP #2: do not pay for business class. All you get for the extra $ 20 is a $ 3 voucher towards food and a little more arm rest room. They say you get a free paper but you don’t. All the people that get on from Portland take the limited supply.

I’ve taken 3 Amtrak trips along the west coast in recent years and each had at least a 3.5 hour delay. While the service is generally good and the stations are very well-​maintained, it’s not worth the 7.5 hour Seattle-​Portland trip or 24 hours from Eugene to San Francisco. Take the bus!

This station is nice, however if you plan to go east be prepared for delays. Google search how often the routes to the east are CONSTANTLY delayed.
I found out the hard way. I was on this train for 4 days. The train’s electricity would constantly go out. I mean in the middle of no where. We were delayed by 8 hours. We were so late, there were TWO FULL private busloads of people that had to sleep in a hotel in Chicago for the night to catch their next trains.
Basically if you take this Amtrak route the only thing you can look forward to is a free night in a Chicago hotel because otherwise you’re going to be delayed by 1 – 2 days. To make up what do they offer… Besides beans, water and rice you get a free ride along the same route. Amazing! During the night in Chicago they offered $ 10 vouchers per person for food, which would have been great if YOU WERE NOT IN DOWNTOWN CHICAGO where $ 10 doesn’t amount to the paper it’s printed on.
The goods were that even the coach trains had electrical outlets. 2 per 2 seats. Plenty of space, I’m a tall guy and I was as comfortable as you can get on a train. The assistants were and the views were almost worth the trip alone.

Service is always good, especially from the ticket machine.
Station is always clean.
Plenty of benches and free parking. Yo

Way better than the flight, but the female customers service rep here needs to consider a job change such as maybe «Greeter» in Hell! OMG I had a 5 word simple question «when does the train come» and I waited for her to come out of back room, where we call on her, for 10 min, then when she answered she immediately trilled around and left leaving no time for her POS answer to even digest, that she didn’t even answer the question. Later that evening upon leaving she didn’t help her coworker at all as the lined formed. He was very nice by the way.
The fact a person like this is a customer service rep is clearly a management problem. She would do better cleaning the train or somewhere else where customers are not a problem.

Would love to travel by train more!
As far as this station, I forgot my friend left my car she borrowed there. It was there 4days and no ticket, complaint or issue at all!
Had it been Portland, where I usually travel out of it would have been towed.
So grateful!

I have no problem with Amtrak’s frequent delays (even the hours long ones), the busted seats, the broken ticket kiosks, or the typically nasty bathrooms. I figure it’s still better than flying. No shoeless x-​ray scans! I can keep my drink! And I can check luggage for free, and lots of it! Not to mention the seats (when not busted), are way comfier. What I do have a problem with, however, is being treated rudely by snarky ticket agents. This unfortunately happened at the Vancouver Depot, by an agent who seemed to go out of her way to make my experience hellish. So to Sara, I’d just like to say: please, please, for the love of all that is good and right (if you even care), GET SOME CUSTOMER SERVICE SKILLS!!! That is all.

Overall, this is a pretty good way to get to Seattle. Rather than driving for 3 hours you can sit back and relax for the same time. I only wish the internet was better. My first ride it was usable for web browsing/​email. However, on my last round trip (one leg of which was almost empty) the data was down to a trickle — not even enough to load my precious gmail. Also, just for future reference — riding during the day on a weekday is great — there is almost nobody else on the train so you can stretch out and relax. Weekends/​evenings — watch out!

I’ve been sitting on board the Cascades train 10 minutes out of Portland — not moving — for two hours. Helpfully, the conductor announces every 3 minutes he doesn’t know why we’ve stopped or how long we’ll be here. ‘nuf said about Amtrak’s reliability?

Amtrak customer service SUCKS.
Here is a real conversation I just had, when trying to book a ticket from Vancouver, WA to Bellingham, WA:
Me: Just out of curiosity, how come a ticket for which half of the trip is by bus costs the same as a ticket for which all of the trip is by train, even when you can’t check luggage on a bus, and there’s no snacks or wifi?
Ticket agent: Well, we can’t make everyone happy!
Me: But Amtrak is a large corporation that is selling a service. Your job, actually, is to make customers happy, because that’s how you get more business.
Ticket agent: I sell tickets all day long, and most people don’t say [in a mocking, singsong voice] «Oh, I don’t want to ride on a bus! I want to take my whole trip on the train!»
Me: Are you making fun of me with that snotty voice?
Ticket agent: Absolutely not.

Portland has Union Station, arguably one of the most spiffogastic train terminals in the west, but Vancouver WA has something else: free parking!
If you’re starting in N or NE Portland and headed to Seattle or thereabouts on the Cascades, consider this. You can hang out wherever you are an extra half hour or so, drive right to the station and walk onto the train.
This may not work as well if it’s rush hour northbound on I-​5. Also if it’s a crowded train (such as a Friday or Sunday night) you might not get the choicest seat assignment.
If you find yourself having to wait, you can pass the time pretending you’re at a little country junction because basically you are. Since the platforms aren’t covered this plays best when the weather’s nice.