"New" Amtrak Route Announcement

It will be interesting to see the train consist, and how many cars are "through cars."

My wife and I have taken the Capitol Limited to Washington D.C. three times with Superliner equipment and the train has been pretty well patronized.

Not a very efficient or direct route IMO. Typical Amtrak. Why not “create” a New corridor for service like a route of Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, then south to Miami. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

Wouldn't be dependent on getting a host railroad to start with?

As I understand it it's going to be the Viewliner Silver Start consist running from Chicago/Miami instead of NYC/Miami. Frees up some cars from the Capital Limited for western use. Really has to do with reducing traffic through the tunnels into Manhattan while they are being renovated. Part of the day they will be closing one of the two tunnels. Amtrak website says this is a "temporary" rerouting.

@TrainBub posted:

Not a very efficient or direct route IMO. Typical Amtrak. Why not “create” a New corridor for service like a route of Chicago, St. Louis, Nashville, Atlanta, Jacksonville, then south to Miami. 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

It does sound like a sensible and simple solution, but the pre-Amtrak Chicago to Florida routes consisted of through trains using several different railroads en route.  Today it would mainly be UP, KCCP, NS, and CSX, if the former Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Nashville Chattanooga & St Louis, Central of Georgia, and Southern subdivisions formerly used are even still intact.

One thing most railroads have done when passenger service was cancelled on a route, is to shorten the crossing warning device approach circuits for lower speeds, and sometimes re-space block signals for the same reason.  So, if there is going to be a re-establishment of passenger service by Amtrak, the host roads have a laundry list of requirements that -- frankly -- are often self-serving opportunities to upgrade their railroad at public expense.  You can see examples of this throughout the past few years with the drama surrounding trying to re-establish passenger service from New Orleans eastward along the gulf.  For Chicago-Florida, just multiply that drama by 3 or 4, with each railroad on the route submitting its own very expensive Christmas list.

But running from Chicago on a generally southeastern route would certainly provide a shorter, faster running time and would reconnect some cities that were cut off in the cancellation of direct service to Florida.

@Number 90 posted:

It does sound like a sensible and simple solution, but the pre-Amtrak Chicago to Florida routes consisted of through trains using several different railroads en route.  Today it would mainly be UP, KCCP, NS, and CSX, if the former Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Illinois Central, Louisville & Nashville, Nashville Chattanooga & St Louis, Central of Georgia, and Southern subdivisions formerly used are even still intact.

One thing most railroads have done when passenger service was cancelled on a route, is to shorten the crossing warning device approach circuits for lower speeds, and sometimes re-space block signals for the same reason.  So, if there is going to be a re-establishment of passenger service by Amtrak, the host roads have a laundry list of requirements that -- frankly -- are often self-serving opportunities to upgrade their railroad at public expense.  You can see examples of this throughout the past few years with the drama surrounding trying to re-establish passenger service from New Orleans eastward along the gulf.  For Chicago-Florida, just multiply that drama by 3 or 4, with each railroad on the route submitting its own very expensive Christmas list.

But running from Chicago on a generally southeastern route would certainly provide a shorter, faster running time and would reconnect some cities that were cut off in the cancellation of direct service to Florida.

The drama of extending service east from New Orleans is beyond ridiculous.  The route needs to be completely reestablish connections to Tallahassee and Jacksonville !!!!

Everything goes thru Chicago while Another logical hub seems to be ignored - St. Louis. It used to rival Chicago in hub / thru traffic. Reestablishing routes thru St. L. would relieve some Chicago congestion and Again, reestablish ignored old markets / routes. Southwest out of St. L. to Oklahoma City is the old Frisco Meteor route. It is a Gorgeous daytime route and could service Numerous towns along the route. East out of St Louis could connect with a choice of many significant large Cities all the way to Pittsburg. From there - choice of routing to DC, Philly, or New York area (my choice).

So many Logical options  (IMHO) 😬

Cheers 😉