National Park Service Guide on Amtrak's Coast Starlight - Santa Barbara area

The Trails and Rails program is a collaboration between the National Park Service and Amtrak. Trails and Rails volunteers provide an interpretive program aboard Amtrak’s Coast Starlight on Amtrak’s Coast Starlight as it travels along the Juan Bautista De Anza National Historic Trail between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. Most of the program takes place in the Sightseer Lounge car aboard the Coast Starlight.

Guides are expected to volunteer a minimum of one day per month, March through September. (The program is inactive October through February.) We travel between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo, beginning and ending at the Santa Barbara Amtrak Station the same day. Hours are approximately 11:30 am to 6:30 pm. Saturdays or Sundays.

Potential Trails and Rails volunteers attend an initial day-long classroom training at the start of their first season, then continue their education by observing and assisting seasoned guides in peer-to-peer learning on the train. Written materials, historical articles, and related websites round out each guide’s training and continuing education.