Amtrak Charter Lets Players Ride the Rails to Las Vegas

This spring, paying passengers will ride the rails between Los Angeles and Las Vegas for the first time since Amtrak’s Desert Wind train stopped running in 1997. But so far only four trips are scheduled.

Key Holidays, a company based in Walnut Creek, Calif., that has been an Amtrak tour operator for nearly two decades, is chartering 14-car trains from Amtrak to make weekend runs departing Los Angeles’ Union Station on April 12 and May 3 and weekday runs departing April 16 and May 7. The journey takes a little more than seven hours each way, with stops in Fullerton and San Bernardino.

For $195 to $385 per person midweek, double occupancy, and $249 to $489 for the weekend, guests get round-trip train fare, two nights’ lodging, transfers and lunch on the return trip, said Key Holidays president Henry Luna. Weekend trips, limited to adults 21 and older, also include dinner and a dance car with a live band. Children ages 2 to 11 are allowed on the weekday trips for $89. Prices vary by the hotel chosen.

No more trips are scheduled this year because a contract with Union Pacific limits the trips to two a month, and in summer the trains are used elsewhere by Amtrak, Luna said. See a travel agent, call (800) 783-0783 or visit www.keyholidays.com.

The new tours come as long-awaited plans for a new rail siding, which Amtrak says will help it cut up to two hours off the L.A.-Las Vegas journey and allow it to renew regular service, remain stalled over environmental concerns.