Amtrak to Coachella

Amtrak has worked out a creative deal with Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival that will allow campers to ride a train from Los Angeles to Indio (and back) for FREE! Amtrak sees it as a way to promote travel by train to younger people. They are limiting it to the first 500 people registering - you DO have to have a concert ticket and camping reservations. Here's the official page for the Coachella Express. They are estimating a 3-hour travel time from Union Station to Indio.

Suggestion to Amtrak: please make a greater than usual effort to keep the train on schedule or you'll do more harm than good.