Desert sunsets, delays and dining car treats on a 43-hour train journey from LA to Chicago

To a traveller in a hurry, this is the stuff of nightmares. To a seasoned passenger on the train known as Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, it is just another day.

When you board an American long-distance train, you are trading the airport routine for entry into a locomotive-driven realm where there is neither security check nor Wi-fi, and AI might as well stand for aged infrastructure, not artificial intelligence.

There will be delays, often because of passing freight trains. But you are freeing yourself from worry about aerodynamics or the chronic shortage of US air traffic controllers and gaining access to ground-level scenery and idle hours.

You are also joining a modest trend. Even before this autumn’s flight cancellations during the US government shutdown, Amtrak had set records for passengers and revenue in fiscal 2024, then again in 2025.