The closest equivalent was the Southern Pacific Railroad (SP)'s West Coast, which ran via the San Joaquin Valley from Los Angeles to Portland from 1924 to 1949, with through cars to Seattle via the Great Northern Railway (GN).

The Seattle–San Diego route was initially left out of plans for Railpax (later Amtrak) until protests from politicians in California, Oregon, and Washington.

[8] An additional train, the Spirit of California, ran the section of the route between Sacramento and Los Angeles on an overnight schedule from October 25, 1981, to September 30, 1983.

On April 26, 1982, the train was rerouted via Roseville on the Southern Pacific Valley and Martinez Subdivisions, with stops added at Sacramento, Chico, and Marysville,[15] per request from the state.

[17] Ridership declined by 26% between 1999 and 2005 as freight congestion and track maintenance on the Union Pacific Railroad reduced the Coast Starlight's on-time performance to 2%, which Amtrak characterized as "dismal."

[19] Service was suspended north of Sacramento for a month in 2017 after a freight derailment damaged a bridge near Mount Shasta, California.

[20] On February 24, 2019, the southbound Coast Starlight struck a fallen tree near Oakridge, Oregon after a rare heavy snowstorm.

[24] In late June 2021, the Lava Fire seriously damaged a Union Pacific trestle on the Black Butte Subdivision between Klamath Falls, Oregon and Dunsmuir, California.

[31] In 2022, the California Transportation Commission approved $7.5 million for the construction of a new station in King City to improve access to the region,[32] including nearby Fort Hunter Liggett and Pinnacles National Park.

[34] The proposal would re-route the train from along the shores of San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait to a new tunnel through Franklin Canyon and a right-of-way next to California State Route 4 that would reduce the trip time by several minutes.

[38] The train uses double-decker Superliner equipment, including a Sightseer Lounge car that has floor-to-ceiling windows to view the passing scenery.

Called a "living room on rails", the Parlour car offered several amenities to first-class sleeping car passengers including wireless Internet access, a full bar, a small library with books and games, an afternoon wine tasting, and a movie theater on the lower level.