There must be something that somebody is missing here. Of course you can. Train is the Coast Starlight. Unless there is some sort of problem antiicpated or otherwise, this has been for years part of the Amtrak system, so I don't understand the "going to be possible" part. A couple of years ago it was very unreliable, but from all I have heard, it is now running to some reasonalbe approximation of schedule. Go to the Amtrak web site and you con find all you need to know about fares and schedule. For the schedule folder itself,
www.amtrak.com/timetable/oct07/p11.pdf Scroll down to the second page as it opens with the page that is the cover and the various bus connections. Hang around here and you can get an idea of how close it normally runs to schedule.
Amtrak is talking about a "relaunch" sometime next year with refurbished and improved equipment. Maybe that is what you have heard about. However, this will not be a new service, but simply an upgrade - we hope - of a service that already exists.
(I ocnsider this term "relaunch" rediculous. What do they think this is? A boat that has been pulled out of the water and fixed up and renamed? That would be be a real relaunch. The sort of stuff being done here and in most other cases where the term is used is simply Marketingspeak nonsense. To comment on another marketingspeak item of nonsense: The term, "branding" When Eisner was talking about it at Disney, Roy Disney's response was to the effect that, "Branding is something you do to cattle.")
George