New to railroading (Questions)

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There’s a bus to one of the Southwest Chief’s stations.

Plus there’s the Heartland Flyer to Fort Worth to catch the Texas Eagle which joins the Sunset Limited in San Antonio 3 days a week.

Go to Amtrak’s website and search for OKC to LAX
 
My nearest station is OKC OK
You have two options.

a) Take the #8904 Thruway bus to Newton, KS, where you’ll connect to the #3 Southwest Chief to LAX, or

b) Take the #821 Heartland Flyer Fort Worth, where you’ll connect to the Texas Eagle #421 to LAX.

Option A is about a 12 hour shorter trip, runs daily, and will get you into LA at an easy enough 8:00 AM, however it requires a 3 1/2 hour bus segment. Meanwhile Option B only runs three times a week, gets you into LA by 5:35 AM (a bit early), is 12 hours longer, and doesn’t have a bus segment.

I would personally choose B, since the TE is a lovely ride with consistently good crews (the extra train time is a big plus for me), wonderful scenery west of San Antonio (plenty of gorgeous desserts and rock formations through New Mexico, west Texas, and Arizona), and though the thrice-weekly schedule certainly isn’t ideal, it generally isn’t too hard to find a day that works.

Do you plan on traveling coach or sleeper?
 
Here's a link to the Amtrak Route Map:  https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/Maps/Amtrak-System-Map-1018.pdf  Once upon a time there was a printed catalog of just about everything there was to know about Amtrak and the 11 X 16 inch route map it contained was annotated with page numbers that identified the train and showed its timetable (aka, schedule).  But that printed version was discontinued a little over a year ago and replaced by a PDF version - which was discontinued a few weeks ago.

The newcomer to train travel in the US now has to Google up the route map and use the Amtrak home page to see the timetables/schedules.  
 
This is also a fantastic tool. It allows you to super easily find all the nearest stations and possible routes.
 
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