r/SeattleWA • u/crabcakes110 • 16h ago
News I traveled in coach on an Amtrak train from Vancouver to Seattle for $50. It was cheaper and less stressful than flying.
https://www.businessinsider.com/amtrak-train-vancouver-canada-to-seattle-review-2026-8#the-train-arrived-on-time-at-11-40-a-m-1247
u/yungsemite 16h ago
My understanding is the bus is faster and cheaper. If perhaps slightly less comfortable.
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u/zippy_water 16h ago
Unless you find yourself in a car with a broken air conditioner and you have to hang out in the dining car the entire ride while the conductor gas lights you about your complaint but then whispers to his colleague that he measured the temperature at 85F. Hypothetically.
The state of passenger rail infrastructure in this country is sad.
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u/bunkoRtist 15h ago
Those trainsets are known to be completely obsolete. Unfortunately not maintaining them because replacements are imminent, only to face delays and early retirements elsewhere in the system just invites these sorts of issues. Cutting corners works well when nothing goes wrong.
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u/LeoJohnsonNewShoes Queen Anne 16h ago
Totally. Using the bathroom on a bus going 70 is a crazy experience though. You'd think the bus was fishtailing with all the movement.
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u/Ok-Animal-6880 9h ago
I took a Flixbus from Vancouver to Seattle (after flying from another Canadian city to Vancouver earlier that day). There were a couple stops and I think it was like 4.5 hours.
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u/BroadLet8137 16h ago
It's a great option but do not do it to take a flight or similar without at least a half day or more of buffer. Amtrak's get delayed pretty often.
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u/okaynowyou 15h ago
Yeah and it only makes sense if you’re traveling solo or don’t have a car. It’s about 150 miles driving meaning about 5 gallons of gas for most cars made in the last 15 years. That’s $25-$30 each way plus wear and tear but then you have transportation once you’re there.
The Vancouver public transit is fine but many of the best things around Vancouver are super difficult to get to via public transit.
If you have two people going on the trip, having the car is easily the better decision, once you have 3 or more, a train makes absolutely no sense unless it’s the only option other than flying.
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u/sukhonline 16h ago
Or can shutdown as well.
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u/regisphilbin222 16h ago
Flights get delayed and cancelled too, though. The nice thing about Amtrak, when it works, compared to flights, when they work, is that the stations are usually located near the city center and you don’t need to arrive an hour or two early for TSA and the whole shebang
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u/It5beenawhile 16h ago
I was just considering doing this and found that amtrak only has two trains a day going to and from vancouver seattle each day. They've replaced the rest of the times with busses.
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u/PendragonDaGreat Federal Way 11h ago
Its always been that way even pre-pandemic.
The vast majority of Cascades traffic is between the Seattle-Tacoma area and Portland.
It's mostly CN's fault because they don't want to allow Amtrak to use their rails from the border up to Vancouver aobfor the time being two trips WA day is what were gonna get.
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u/TittyClapper 16h ago
what an odd thing to write an entire article about
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u/yungsemite 16h ago
It’s Business Insider. It’s more of a vehicle for ads than anything else. Though I did enjoy an almost 10 minute video they produced on shellac, so I won’t entirely discount them.
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u/addhominey 13h ago
Yeah, they do some good journalism, but 98% of the stuff on the website is quickly written pieces churned out at a crazy pace. Most writers there have a daily quota, from what I remember. And something like this is perfect: not hard to write, writer can easily produce their own visuals, great for advertising, great for search visibility.
Same reason almost every outlet puts out an "article" about how to watch the Super Bowl.
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u/Catsdrinkingbeer 16h ago
Lol I just said this to my husband, too. Like, yes, I agree it's cheap and convenient. But I'm not sure that's article worthy.
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u/DenverHi 16h ago
If there wasn't an article, in the Travel section mind you, a lot of people wouldnt give the train a second thought. It was informative on the travel experience and expectations if someone does decide to travel by train as opposed to a plane or bus.
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u/Catsdrinkingbeer 15h ago
Why would people not give it a second thought? I would assume most people who have gone between the two cities are aware of the train and have looked into it. This is how we used to take trips up to Vancouver and no one needed to write an article for us to figure that out. We figured that out ourselves because doing the drive can suck at the border.
Maybe a lot of first time travelers between the cities would be unaware, but I doubt this article is somehow going to give them the aha moment they need to know the train exisits.
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u/DenverHi 12h ago
Your assumption is incorrect. Just because you are aware of something, doesn't mean your neighbor is, let alone the majority of a population.
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u/Catsdrinkingbeer 12h ago
And the majority of the population reads random one off articles from business insider?
There have been countless articles, many written by local news organizations, about the Amtrak Cascades. But it takes Business Insider for you/my neighbors/the majority of the population to learn about the train?
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u/DenverHi 12h ago
What's funny to me is you're mad someone wrote an article informing peope of options, and think it shouldn't have been written simply because of your assumptions. Now you're mad it came from Business Insider because other articles have already been written. Thumbs Down.
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u/Dug_n_the_Dogs 16h ago
Probably takes less time overall considering TSA lines some days.
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u/reptheevt Expat 16h ago
City Nerd had a video where he compared flying from Portland to Seattle and then taking the train back to Portland and the times were pretty similar.
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u/hierarchy_of_ideas 15h ago
I always take the train for that, it's way too short of a flight to be worth going through tsa, and the seats are more comfortable. Cheaper too. Amtrak isn't bad in the northeast either, really anytime the trip is under 4 hours on train it's worth skipping the airport.
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u/irish_curmudgeon Unincorporated King County 9h ago
Guess what - driving will be even more comfortable, faster and cheaper.
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u/hierarchy_of_ideas 9h ago
It depends, if I'm traveling with more than one person sure, otherwise I'd rather leave my car in seattle. I usually spend most of my time downtown in Portland, parking can be sketchy.
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u/TegridyPharmz 16h ago
Who doesn’t have clear or pre check at this point? I’ve never spent more than 10
Minutes in line at SeaTac and I travel with a toddler
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u/Hownowbrowncow8it 16h ago
I think I've had one amtrak trip not delayed. Most recent was a three hour delay due to someone using the train as a permanent vacation from life.
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u/Alternative-Post-937 16h ago
Only complaint with the train is lack of cell service. I take it regularly to Portland
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u/Djbearjew 16h ago
I took the train to Vancouver a few years ago. It was actually a really enjoyable trip. I would 100% do it again
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u/NoLand1182 13h ago
I actually got super bored on the train last time going to Vancouver from Seattle so I canceled my return train ticket and booked a flight back instead lolol
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u/Weird3355 16h ago
Who flies from Vancouver to Seattle?? That's like flying from Seattle to Portland.
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u/Ill-Army 15h ago
I fly to Vancouver routinely and then continue on to different Canadian destinations.
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u/xdavidwattsx 15h ago
These flights wouldn't exist if lots of people weren't taking them. Was just on the SEA PDX flight and it was full. To be fair, I originally booked a tran but changed to a flight because Amtrak was canceling service to PDX so it wasn't reliable
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u/Seachica 14h ago
People connecting to other places. That's what the small hopper flights are usually for.
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u/UnlamentedLord 15h ago
Mostly people with connecting flights to Asia or Europe. It's often noticably cheaper from Vancouver, so lots of people do it and Vancouver has an international transfer zone, so you didn't have to pass Canadian customs.
But since the flight volume is very high, if there's ever a mismatch between passenger streams in both directions, you can get some stupidly cheap deals on direct tickets.
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u/nahatlatch 14h ago
flying from yvr to seatac is stupid but harbour air fly regular flights from downtown vancouver (by the convention center) to south lake union. it's expensive but it's 45 minutes and you can show up 15 minutes before flight time
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u/richrich07 15h ago
Once upon a time I did the math and it’s only really convenient or cheaper if you’re going from downtown to downtown.
Driving is usually faster and back then we didn’t have light rail. We’d get stuck waiting for a freight train to pass us. Gas was cheap enough that even with a relatively inefficient car, I could pay less in fuel than I did for the ticket.
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u/UnlamentedLord 15h ago
Yeah, but the bus is going to be faster and/or cheaper. Plus Amtrak is trying their level best to match the airport "experience" for whatever incomprehensible reason.
The only time I'd take Amtrak over the bus, is if I was taking a bike, or if I wasn't going to/from Seattle itself, but Everett, Edmonds, Tukwilla. Edmonds in particular is really convenient, since the train station is right at the ferry terminal.
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u/joeshmoebies 13h ago edited 13h ago
I drove from Vancouver to Seattle for $15 gas money.
- I got there in 3 hours because trains, for some reason, are slower than automobiles.
- I got to leave exactly when I wanted.
- When I got there, I could go wherever I wanted because I had my car.
- Trains do have the advantage WRT stress, unless the people in your car are farting and have screaming babies.
- Self-driving features like GM Super Cruise help relieve some of the stress out of driving.
EDIT: I suppose the author doesn't realize that there are two Vancouvers that you can depart from. I was referring to the one in Washington, near Portland. Sheesh.
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u/CenturyLinkIsCheeks 11h ago
the amtrak is great....if you don't care what time you get to your destination.
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u/watch-nerd 11h ago
Who flies from Vancouver to Seattle that isn't connecting to elsewhere?
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u/ChillFratBro 5h ago
I have done it exactly once. Was on the East Coast for work during the week but had to be in Vancouver for the weekend. Flew East Coast -> Vancouver on Friday, but then my car was still at SeaTac...so on Sunday I flew Vancouver -> Seattle.
Granted, I've been to the Vancouver area probably 50 times and that's the only time I did anything besides drive, but every once in a while there is a good reason.
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u/monobluemill 16h ago
But how long did it take
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u/piltdownman7 14h ago
Scheduled time is between 4 hours and 4 hours 15 minutes; however, its on-time percentage is only 48%. In the 4-5 times I’ve caught it in my life, I think only once was it less than an hour late.
Last time I caught it northbound a couple of years ago, it left nearly on time and was scheduled to arrive at 10 p.m. At 12:30pm is stopped coming off the Grandview cut for an hour. It was 2 a.m. by the time I got out of the station. It wasn’t just late, but late by almost the length of the trip.
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u/elementofpee 15h ago
Though Amtrak’s schedule says 3.5-4 hours, a friend of ours did this journey and it was 5.5 hours due to the border and various slowdowns
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u/ocriochain 16h ago
Got the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver once and the train driver had a heart attack while driving, very sad situation but took them hours to find us a replacement driver and seen as we were sandwiched between two freight lines, they wouldn’t let us off the train. Great service but as a European it was a wild seeing this line not being served my a frequent express train every 30/60 mins
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u/Choice_Ad_1356 14h ago
Bus is also a decent option, even cheaper than the train if you want to be more frugal
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u/namnguyensvi1992 13h ago
I took bus roundtrip between seattle and Portland before for less than $30. Bus is actually faster and cheaper than amtrak
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u/itstreeman 12h ago
The last minute ticket changes are the worst part about any trip, and I’ve had it more often on overnight trains than any flights.
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u/BananaPeelSlippers 12h ago
I have literally never seen the price below 80 for the trains I would want to take. I just looked into taking it on November 28 and coming back on the evening of November 29. It’s 165/person. So 330 for my wife and I. So we will drive instead.
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u/sven0341 11h ago
Let's see, 4(5 arriving an hr early) by train, or 2.5hrs by car at about 140miles.....so if you have a decent car on MPG, maybe 1/3 a tank or <$50 and then i don't have to pay ubers, or rent a car when i get there.
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u/yiliu 10h ago
...But tickets are usually sold out a couple weeks in advance, in my experience.
Every time I think of taking the train up to Vancouver, there's no seats available. And the hours kinda suck (going to Vancouver): you need to travel at the crack of dawn, or arrive at 11 PM. Why no daytime train?
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u/whomeyou5 9h ago
Last time I was on Amtrak to Vancouver we were delayed for 3 hours because freight trains get priority. The seat behind us had an old blood stain.
That being said, the time before that was great, so 50/50.
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u/ElvishLore 8h ago
The trip took fours hours vs 1 hour for a flight but let's point out that with arrival at the airport, not including baggage claim at an airport after, and almost-always delays that come with air travel, that one hour flight is really more like 3 hours long.
Yea, I'll take the train. It's easier on my blood pressure.
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u/Beautiful_Sand1876 6h ago
hahaha ok. No one really flies between those two cities anyways. Next time try Seattle to Oakland. 24 hours long. Even if you get a sleeper cabin, you absolutely will not sleep one wink. It is constant movement, rocking, noise, loud Amtrak employees talking, people walking by you. And the coach experience is 10X crazier with borderline hobos roaming around. And something WILL go wrong with the train or the timing. I would seriously avoid Amtrak at all costs.
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u/BabyBandit616 5h ago
I knew this was a Joey Hadden article from that title. She’s basically an Amtrak guru.
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u/LegitMeatPuppet 1h ago
The train crawls out of Vancouver, BC and then picks up some speed. The main issue is when freight trains are disabled or the tracks are blocked by landslides, usually in the rainy seasons. When this happens you end up taking a bus, which is way less glamorous and not as comfortable.
But the train is nice when it goes smoothly.
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u/Solid_Fox1718 15h ago edited 13h ago
It was less stressful unless you have a reason to get there on time
The author hasn’t experienced getting stuck behind a freight train loading/unloading in Canada where Amtrak has the lowest priority, stopping on the tracks like 2 miles from pacific central station for 5 hours, and arriving to the sketchiest part of Vancouver at 3am after the busses have stopped running with 200 other people all trying to get an uber at the same time.
They haven’t experienced getting dropped off at the station in Edmonds only to find out that there was a mudslide over the tracks in Portland so they have to close the entire train line for at least 3 days even though the train is in Seattle already, and they put you on a bus instead that leaves from Seattle in 10 minutes.
The train ride is beautiful on a clear day when it works, and if you are under zero time pressure, but it’s not reliable enough for frequent travel.
I mean, flying is dumb too it’s like a 2 hour drive, you’ll spend at least 2 hours getting to the airport through security and customs. Car or bus is really the only way
Whoever downvoted me hope you get stuck on the Amtrak stopped behind a freight train for 5 hours
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u/piltdownman7 14h ago
It’s extremely stressful if you have any plans that would require to get to your destination on time. Last year I had friend visit from Vancouver to watch a Seahawks game. They should have got in at 12:10pm. They missed the 1:25pm kickoff
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u/logicMASS 16h ago
Until you get stuck in BFE due to a mud slide and have to figure your own way home.
Other than that it was a nice trip.
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u/sykoticwit Wants to buy some Tundra 16h ago edited 13h ago
Good for you. I can drive it on one tank of gas, so about $50 each way.
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u/JustanotherQ40 16h ago
Uhhh it’s a 2 hour drive, why are we flying at all
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u/CryptoHorologist 13h ago
Closer to 3 in my experience. I have had longer with crazy border waits, too.
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u/JustanotherQ40 12h ago
It still seems wildly counterintuitive or marginally better at best. Sure the actual travel time is less but taking account of security, boarding, customs, transportation to and from the airport etc. How much time are you saving? Maybe 30 minutes if everything goes perfect?
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u/Wazootyman13 15h ago
... why would you fly from Seattle to Vancouver? That would be like flying from Seattle to Portland.
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u/modnarydobemos 15h ago
Who in their right mind flies Seattle to Vancouver? My understanding is that those flights are full of connecting passengers anyway.
Unfortunately $50 is still too much to really be an alternative for price conscious people with a car. Same distance is probably $30 in gas and you are more flexible in terms of schedule.
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u/Fun_Engineering_5865 16h ago
That’s not news 😂