The Absolute Best Amtrak Love Stories

It wasn’t just the O’Jay’s who found train travel to be romantic! Since Amtrak was founded in 1971, we’ve always been about bringing people together. And why not? Train travel is nostalgic and romantic!

From coast to coast, you’ve shared your travel love stories with us. From whisking significant others away for surprise vacations to meeting a complete stranger who ends up being your soul mate, we’ve heard it all! Plus a few proposals in between. Our archives are even full of love stories from past decades in our 43-year history!

So to celebrate love and connection, here are the our favorite train travel love stories from our customers!

• Mike and Tess: When Michael stepped aboard our Cascades service planning to travel from Portland to Seattle in February 2009, he didn’t know then that the trip would change his life. It wasn’t the adventure of train travel, but the chance meeting with the woman he would eventually propose to four years later, that made the Amtrak trip so memorable.
• Jeff and McCown: You know how some people plan big trips for weeks? Pack days in advance and count down to their departure? Jeffrey and his finacee McCown don’t operate like that. The couple booked a roomette aboard our Silver Meteor one hour before the train left the station from South Carolina heading for New York. They called it a Weekend Blitz, and rightfully so!
• Becca and Mike:  Last fall, London-based newlyweds Mike and Becca set off on a true adventure. A lifetime of marital bliss lies before them. And they put about 3,000 miles of rail behind them on their honeymoon, traveling through New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Minneapolis, Seattle and San Francisco on a whirlwind journey.
• The Sessoms: Train travel isn’t just for newlyweds. The loving Sessom family traveled from Baltimore to Chicago as a family to support their daughter’s basketball team and were photographed by famed photographer Brandon Stanton of Humans of New York along the way.
• Jenni and Matt: These rail fans were even married at a train station, so when the recession hit they did the first logical thing: They set off on a 45-day train trip to 18 stops visiting friends and family. They say it even brought them closer as a couple!

Do you have an Amtrak love story to share with us? We’d love to hear about it!