National Park Service Trails & Rails Guide Based Near San Jose on Amtrak's Coast Starlight

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 as it ravels along the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail between San Jose and Paso Robles. 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, April through September. (The program is inactive October through April.) We travel between San Jose and Paso Robles, beginning and ending at the San Jose Diridon Station the same day. Hours are approximately 9:30 am to 8:30 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.