Traveling Outside of Time
Instead, those who traveled the train Rosenwald remade found leisurely gourmet meals, roomy armchairs and comfortable beds. They loved it, and they flocked to first-class accommodations in record numbers. In a few short years, the Coast Starlight became a model of long-distance train travel.
Or maybe not. As often happens in large organizations, especially those with government oversight, one man’s singular vision has a way of being blurred over time. As rewarding as Rosenwald’s innovations have been for passengers and as financially rewarding as they have been for Amtrak, the Coast Starlight is losing some of its luster these days. It’s still a remarkable journey, but Rosenwald no longer oversees the train. Whether the Starlight continues to flourish is a question that may well determine the future of long-distance trains in the U.S.
The Coast Starlight used to be known, in Amtrak circles, as “Brian’s train.” That’s how closely he was associated with this route, how influential his leadership was, how well he knew the train and everyone who worked on it or for it, from the coach car attendants to the galley cooks to the engineers to ticket clerks in stations along the way. Back in the mid-1990s, a period which he now considers the high-water mark of his three-decade Amtrak career, Rosenwald was general manager of the Coast Starlight. During his almost five years n the job, he traveled the train more than 200 times and has almost as many tales to tell.