Roughly an hour into the journey, while crossing the Benicia-Martinez bridge, we saw the so-called "mothball fleet" in Suisun Bay.
We witnessed the morning light dancing off San Pablo Bay, a tidal estuary that extends north from the San Francisco Bay. The first leg of the seven-hour journey to Reno took us along the water northeast of San Francisco. During the 2012 fiscal year, the Zephyr's ridership increased to 376,459 passengers as compared to 355,324 in 2011, according to data from Amtrak. This made for a much better experience than air travel (no airport security either), which is often crowded and uncomfortable. The train wasn't packed, which meant we could occupy a few extra seats, spread out and relax. It's the Zephyr's departure point on the 236-mile (380-kilometer) journey to Reno. in the small city of Emeryville, 11 miles (18 kilometers) east of San Francisco. My husband and I were enthusiastically led onto the platform by our 4-year-old son, a train fanatic. I recently rode the Amtrak train for the first time. It also featured young hostesses in uniform, known as Zephyrettes, tasked with making the trip between Chicago and California more pleasant by doing everything from helping families with young children to announcing scenic spots along the way. From 1949 to 1970, the so-called "Silver Lady" boasted five sightseeing cars topped by semi-circular glass domes, with fine china and real silver in the dining cars. Prior to federally subsidized Amtrak taking over the route in 1983, the California Zephyr was privately run by three train corporations. The rail path through the mountains was a 19th century engineering feat that bolstered the nation's western expansion.Ī hundred and forty-four years after the Transcontinental Railroad's completion, train-loving children and picture-happy tourists pack the train's observation car to take in the Sierra Nevada and the mountain passage known as Donner Pass, which was once thought impossible to cross by locomotive. Between Sacramento and Reno, a five-hour trip, it follows the same course as the historic Transcontinental Railroad, according to the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento. The Zephyr's ultimate destination, 51 hours later, is Chicago. Marking 30 years of service this year, the Amtrak train leaves Emeryville, Calif., every morning. Riding the rails from the San Francisco Bay area to Reno, Nev., offers beautiful views and a tangible sense of history on the route over the Sierra Nevada mountain range that helped bring America together after the Civil War. (AP) - The journey east on Amtrak's California Zephyr train is as good as the destination.
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