Amtrak to LA union station - need car, hotel?

[cuterlmt]

So, we're doing the sapphire princess in December. We're taking the Southwest Chief from Albuquerque and will arrive the day before our cruise. We'd like to rent a car for the day so we can explore a little. Do they have a car rental at the train station? Can we return it at the San Pedro Pier? or would it be better to leave it at the hotel for return? And any suggestions for hotel?

Thanks.

[zephyr17]

There are Hertz and Budget counters in LA Union Station that are open 7 days a week when the Southwest Chief arrives. Here is link to the Hertz location information:

 

 

https://www.hertz.com/rentacar/byr/index.jsp?targetPage=locationView.jsp&eoag=LAXX02&locType=pUp

 

Don't know about returning in San Pedro, though.

[cuterlmt]

Do they have shuttle service at the train station so we could make take a shuttle to a hotel which has a shuttle to the pier? and rent a car at the hotel?

Lots of research to do, but thankfully some time to do it!

[Splinter]

Enterprise is the only rental car place that is convenient in San Pedro (at the Crown Plaza). You can take the Amtrak shuttle bus from Union Station to near there (about 8 blocks away) or take a regular paid shuttle service like Supershuttle.com from Union Station to the Crown Plaza and then rent a car if you need one. The Crown Plaza might shuttle you from the San Pedro Amtrak bus stop.

 

Depending on when you get in, and how long it takes you to get to San Pedro, you may not really have much time to do any sightseeing if you only arrive the day before your cruise.

[cuterlmt]

The train gets to LA Union Station at 8am something, so we should have plenty of time. What hubby really wants to do is eat at Clearmans Northwoods Inn or ClaimJumper and maybe take a stop at Rose Hills cemetary to visit some relatives, and we'll need a car for those things. Is the Crown the only place to stay that offers a shuttle to the Pier and has a car rental agency on site? And will super shuttle take us from LA Union Station to the Crown hotel?

Thanks a lot for your help!

[azrose]

The train gets to LA Union Station at 8am something, so we should have plenty of time. What hubby really wants to do is eat at Clearmans Northwoods Inn or ClaimJumper and maybe take a stop at Rose Hills cemetary to visit some relatives, and we'll need a car for those things. Is the Crown the only place to stay that offers a shuttle to the Pier and has a car rental agency on site? And will super shuttle take us from LA Union Station to the Crown hotel?

Thanks a lot for your help!

 

I love Amtrak, but they are well known for being LATE.....FYI plan accordingly!

[megr1125]

I love Amtrak, but they are well known for being LATE.....FYI plan accordingly!

 

 

DITTO! that train, along with the Calif Zephyr were FREQUENTLY 5+ hours late....lucily you are going a day ahead!

 

BTW...get a sleeper! soooooo worth it!

[zephyr17]

DITTO! that train, along with the Calif Zephyr were FREQUENTLY 5+ hours late....lucily you are going a day ahead!

 

BTW...get a sleeper! soooooo worth it!

Just so everyone knows, Amtrak has little control over how their trains are dispatched over freight railroads, which is the main factor in whether or not they are late. The BNSF generally handles Amtrak well, the Union Pacific not so much.

 

The Southwest Chief, which runs over the BNSF railroad, generally has a much better on time record than the California Zephyr, which runs over Union Pacific west of Denver. Your chances of being on time or close to it are pretty good with the Southwest Chief.

 

With that said, I would never recommend arriving the same day on either the Southwest Chief or Empire Builder even though their on time records are fairly good. There is always the chance of a freight derailment blocking the tracks or equipment failure no matter how well they are dispatched.

 

Also, right now flooding in the midwest is causing serious problems for all the western long distance trains. That will just be a bad memory by December, though.

 

PS -- If I were taking the California Zephyr (Chicago - Oakland/San Francisco), the Sunset Limited (New Orleans - LA), or the Texas Eagle (Chicago - LA via Texas), I would actually allow TWO days if I were catching a cruise. 12 hours late is not uncommon and 24 hours is not unheard of. Courtesy of Union Pacific.

[Cruisin' Chick]

We took the Coast Starlight up to Seattle four years ago and the "scheduled" 36 hour trip took 40 hours going north and coming back south. I'm glad we built in an extra days padding before our cruise so we could recover.

[zephyr17]

We took the Coast Starlight up to Seattle four years ago and the "scheduled" 36 hour trip took 40 hours going north and coming back south. I'm glad we built in an extra days padding before our cruise so we could recover.

Union Pacific strikes again. Starlight is on UP from just outside LA to Portland, Oregon. For a long time, "only" being 4 hours late was about the best you could expect. It is nicknamed the "Coast Starlate". I've been on it too many times when we arrive at LA Union Station at 2 or 3 in the morning. Been doing better lately, have to see how long that lasts.

[kenish]

We were in Japan last year. A train ahead of ours was 2 minutes late leaving the platform. The station agent was running around frantically, shouting into the radio and looking like he was going to have a coronary. Later we saw the National Railway's quarterly report in an English-language paper. If I recall correctly, during the previous quarter something like 15 in 1000 departures was late. The average late time was 20 seconds, and their goal was to reduce that to 15 seconds within a year!!