Santa Fe All the Way! A Love Affair with Customers

Santa Fe Railway Thrived on Superb Marketing And Excellent Customer Service

A 1966 Santa Fe timetable—you can tell it's really old by looking at its yellowed pages here!—showed up for an article I am writing, and what a treasure trove it is.

At the time, in my opinion no railroad treated its passengers better. And, probably no American railway was more loved by its traveling customers.

Although several other companies still offered good sleeping car service on a few trains in the 1960's, all too often coach passengers faced near nightmares of surly treatment and dirty, ill-maintained coaches as railroads desperately tried to exit a money-losing business.

In contrast, just 44 years ago, Santa Fe saw fine passenger service as a way to promote its overall business and build goodwill.

We'll talk about the outstanding service, but first let's discuss the marketing that filled the trains.

Marketing “all the way”

Santa Fe knew how to market itself itself big time.

From its catchy slogan “Santa Fe all the way!” to lovable little Chico, its passenger service icon above, Santa Fe placed itself squarely in the American consciousness.

People actually looked forward to traveling this railroad.

While Chico’s name emphasized the Hispanic heritage of much of Santa Fe’s operating territory, his clothes and feather evoked images of the Navajo and other lands of native peoples its trains passed through.

Amtrak’s Southwest Chief still travels through a portion of the Navajo Nation on former Santa Fe tracks.

I will let others decide if Chico would be politically correct today, but he has to be one of the most effective corporate symbols ever created. He set the tone.

Santa Fe turned itself into an "essential" Southwest experience

Along with Chico, Santa Fe extensively used images and western icons that showed off the Southwest in its passenger marketing and on its trains. This was the railroad that took you to the Grand Canyon, to the Painted Desert—to Santa Fe, and it made sure you knew it.

In national publications, on model trains, and even in Hollywood films, Santa Fe featured its colorful and memorable “Santa Fe Warbonnet” passenger locomotives. This painting scheme became the most recognizable of any railroad.

The easily remembered slogan “Santa Fe all the way” (with an emphasis on “all”) showed this was the only railroad that served both Chicago and California at that time.

You had to change railroads, though usually not trains, if you traveled other routes. In contrast, Santa Fe could make sure you had a quality experience throughout your trip.

Trains, trains everywhere

Even though it did not provide passenger service on all its lines shown above, Santa Fe still ran an amazing number of passenger trains in 1966, while its competitors retrenched.

Some of these attained speeds over 100 MPH.

Santa Fe took you from Galveston to Gallup, Denver to El Paso, Stockton to Topeka. You could even travel to the rim of the Grand Canyon without changing trains from Los Angeles and then onward to Chicago.

Most importantly, the railway dominated the Chicago to California market running many extra sections of scheduled trains during the summer and other school holidays, as well as playing a big role in Chicago to Texas travel.

Super Chief

Of all the trains Santa Fe operated, the deluxe all-private room Super Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles became the most famous.

The Super Chief still attracted many Hollywood celebrities into the 1960’s. It even offered a dining room, the Turquoise Room, which could be booked for private use.

Reviews show the meals and dining service on the Super Chief rivaled five-star restaurants, with caviar, elegant champagne dinners, and the like.

Many believe this was the best train ever in the U.S., not surprisingly considering the company that ran it.

However, a key difference between Santa Fe and so many airlines is that its passengers sitting in economy coach often thoroughly enjoyed their trips too.

Santa Fe family plan

Most likely its family plan was the main way Santa Fe attracted so much school holiday business. If you have paid to take your family on an airline lately, you will be totally jealous of the discounts Santa Fe customers received.

• One parent or guardian paid the full roundtrip fare,
• The spouse and children 12 through 21 (!) paid the one-way fare (a little more than half the roundtrip fare),
• Kids 5 to under 12 paid half the one-way fare, and
• Children under 5 (not 2) traveled free.

No wonder Santa Fe packed them in! Clearly, this railroad realized it was competing with the family car, just as Southwest Airlines did a few years later.

Santa Fe offered these discounts seven days a week, with similar family markdowns for one-way trips.

During 1966, you could have traveled roundtrip in coach from Chicago to Los Angeles, San Diego, or San Francisco for $115.15. One way cost $67.39. The top coach trains charged an extra $3 – 5.00 each way.

Special features smoothed your trip

Even coach passengers looked forward to high-quality meal service on the Santa Fe via its contract with the famed Fred Harvey Company. These were freshly prepared meals from professional chefs in a kitchen onboard, not the defrosted, reheated fare so common today.

The railroad provided attractive dining plans, nurses on some trains, pillows, radio and recorded music, etc. If still operating today with the same management, I am sure it would have quickly moved to offer Wi-Fi and at seat plugs on most trains, unlike Amtrak that so seriously lags in this area.

For extra comfort, Santa Fe installed seats on most long-distance trains that rivaled what some airlines use in first class. Passengers looked out through big picture windows that Santa Fe kept clean.

Best of all, Santa Fe offered up some great scenery.

Above: Although it did not segregate its passengers, as did some U.S. railways into the 1960’s, Santa Fe dining car servers and chefs were of African descent. Perhaps to avoid altercations between the races over incorrectly taken orders, passengers were asked to submit their meal requests on a form.

What went wrong?

Blame the post office.

In 1967, the U.S. postal service canceled all of its mail contracts with passenger railroads, electing to use airlines and trucks instead. Not the most environmentally friendly decision and in my opinion not one that considered the greater good.

For Santa Fe, the passenger business became a really, really losing one, as its contract with the post office to carry mail on passenger trains was worth some 35 million per year. With deference to its shareholders, Santa Fe reluctantly moved to cancel most passenger service. What a shame.

The Santa Fe legacy lives

By an act of Congress, Amtrak took over most of what remained of U.S. long-distance passenger rail service in 1971.

Apparently because Santa Fe’s president did not think kindly of the service he received on Amtrak’s trains, Santa Fe soon stopped allowing Amtrak to use the names of its former passenger trains.

Nevertheless, Amtrak wisely adopted key Santa Fe attributes, including incorporating some of Santa Fe’s principal routes into its system, instead of competing ones.

Superliners

Amtrak’s “Superliner” cars (such as the one shown above) became the most visible legacy of Santa Fe, which pioneered high-level seating for better views and quieter operation on its premier long-distance trains.

With these, most passengers traveled high above the rails. Even the lounge cars had an upper level with big windows that extended toward the center of the ceiling. Passengers loved these trains.

Amtrak adopted this type of comfortable design for all its long-distance trains, except sadly those that have to pass through tunnels with low ceilings near its Baltimore station and into New York Penn Station. That includes all trains to Florida and most from the Northeast to Chicago.

Above: An Amtrak high-level lounge car, a “sightseer lounge” in Amtrak terminology, stops at San Luis Obispo station. As with the other Superliner cars on the Coast Starlight, the lounge tracks closely Santa Fe’s design.

A tour group from the Midlands area of England occupies most seats. I loved these wildly upbeat people! Normally, most lounge seats were filled on this scenic route, but at San Luis Obispo some passengers had time to step off the train to smoke.

Washrooms and a snack bar with tables take up the lower level. An adjacent high-level dining car serves hot meals prepared in a kitchen below.

Thank you Santa Fe. You were a class act.