About Window Seat
A reference for people deciding where to go by train, organized by what is outside the window.
What the site is
A visitor picks the scenery and places they want to see. The site lists every train in its catalog that passes them, the named stretch to watch for, and the direction and season each stretch is in daylight. Route pages describe what is seen from the window, in order, with the stations along the way.
The catalog starts with Amtrak's long-distance trains. Routes are added as their named stretches are compiled from the operator's own route guides; a route gets a page once it has three cited stretches. Other operators follow the same rule.
Who makes it
Window Seat is made by one person with software agents. The timetable data is extracted and the daylight tables computed by code that is tested and kept in the open repository. Descriptions of the named stretches are paraphrased by an AI model from Amtrak's route guides and route pages, and every description cites the document it came from. A person reviews each route page before it is published; the reviewer's name appears on the page once the site's byline is set.
The site is not affiliated with Amtrak or any other operator. "Window Seat" is a working name.
How a page is made
Timetables come from each operator's GTFS feed, the machine-readable timetable operators publish, checked daily. Named stretches come from the operator's route guides, with a stored copy of each document. Daylight is computed from the timetable and from sunrise and sunset by month. The methodology page states each rule and formula. Facts that cannot be traced to a source are left out rather than estimated.
What the site does not do
It does not sell tickets, show fares or availability, or report where a train is now. It does not recommend one train over another; rankings on the "what to see" pages are by a stated count, and the choice is left to the reader. See the disclosure for how the site is funded.