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Floridian (train)

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Floridian
The Floridian at Winter Park in 1973.
Overview
Service typeInter-city rail
StatusDiscontinued
LocaleEastern United States
PredecessorSouth Wind
First serviceNovember 14, 1971
Last serviceOctober 9, 1979
Former operator(s)Amtrak
Route
TerminiChicago, Illinois
St. Petersburg, Florida
Miami, Florida
Stops32
Distance travelled1,597 miles (2,570 km) (Miami)
1,481 miles (2,383 km) (St. Petersburg)
Average journey time38 hours 40 minutes (Miami)
38 hours 33 minutes (St. Petersburg)
Service frequencyDaily
Train number(s)56, 57
On-board services
Class(es)Sleeping cars and reserved coach
Catering facilitiesDining car and café-lounge car
Observation facilitiesDome cars
Baggage facilitiesBaggage car
Technical
Track gauge4 ft 8+12 in (1,435 mm)
Track owner(s)Louisville and Nashville Railroad
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad
Route map
0 mi
Chicago
Chicago–Central Station
Pre-1972 route
Homewood
Kankakee
Pre-1975 route
Logansport
118 mi
190 km
Lafayette
Indianapolis
221 mi
356 km
Bloomington
Louisville Union Station
330 mi
531 km
Louisville Auto-Train
438 mi
705 km
Bowling Green
511 mi
822 km
Nashville
629 mi
1012 km
Decatur
713 mi
1147 km
Birmingham
810 mi
1304 km
Montgomery
928 mi
1493 km
Dothan
1020 mi
1642 km
Thomasville
1062 mi
1709 km
Valdosta
1122 mi
1806 km
Waycross
1193 mi
1920 km
Jacksonville
1251 mi
2013 km
Waldo
1297 mi
2087 km
Ocala
1323 mi
2129 km
Wildwood
1303 mi
2097 km
DeLand
1319 mi
2123 km
Sanford
1336 mi
2150 km
Winter Park
1341 mi
2158 km
Orlando
1359 mi
2187 km
Kissimmee
Poinciana
1974–1975
Pre-1973 divide at Orlando
1402 mi
2256 km
Lakeland
1433 mi
2306 km
Tampa
1456 mi
2343 km
Clearwater
1480 mi
2382 km
St. Petersburg
1388 mi
2234 km
Winter Haven
1429 mi
2300 km
Sebring
1531 mi
2464 km
West Palm Beach
1549 mi
2493 km
Delray Beach
1560 mi
2511 km
Deerfield Beach
1574 mi
2533 km
Fort Lauderdale
1581 mi
2544 km
Hollywood
1601 mi
2577 km
Miami
Miami (SAL)
until 1978

The Floridian was a train operated by Amtrak from 1971 to 1979 that ran between Chicago and Florida, with two branches south of Jacksonville terminating at Miami and St. Petersburg. For its Nashville to Montgomery segment, its route followed that of several former Louisville & Nashville Railroad (L&N) passenger trains, including the Pan-American and the Humming Bird (Cincinnati—Louisville—New Orleans). Originating in Chicago, the train served Lafayette and Bloomington, Indiana; Louisville and Bowling Green, Kentucky; Nashville, Tennessee; Decatur, Birmingham, Montgomery and Dothan, Alabama; and Thomasville, Valdosta and Waycross, Georgia.

The Floridian was notorious for lackluster on-time performance, owing to poor track conditions and the poor condition of the equipment it inherited from railroads previously operating on the route. The train used the lines of L&N (including the former Monon Railroad in Indiana, which merged into the L&N shortly after the formation of Amtrak), and Seaboard Coast Line. All are now part of CSX Transportation; some parts of the former route have since been abandoned by CSX.

Amtrak discontinued the Floridian in October 1979, leaving Louisville and Nashville without passenger train service, two of the largest such cities in the nation to have this distinction. (Louisville briefly regained Amtrak service with the Kentucky Cardinal, which operated 1999–2003.) The train was also the very last of a number of long-distance trains that ran between Chicago and Miami for much of the 20th century. Previous trains, on different route configurations between those endpoints, passing through different cities on their respective routes, included City of Miami, Dixie Flagler and South Wind.

History

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Pre-Amtrak

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The Floridian as conceived by Amtrak was a successor of the Pennsylvania Railroad's (PRR) South Wind, which operated over PRR track from Chicago to Louisville via Logansport and Indianapolis, Indiana; then L&N from Louisville to Montgomery, Alabama; the Atlantic Coast Line (ACL) from Montgomery via Waycross to Jacksonville; and then either the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) to Miami or the Atlantic Coast Line to St. Petersburg.[1]: 79–80 

Amtrak

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Amtrak retained the South Wind as a through daily Chicago-Miami train. However, the train was rerouted away from Logansport to the James Whitcomb Riley route via Indianapolis, changing its northern terminus to Chicago's Central Station (owned by Illinois Central Railroad [IC]), which it shared with the Panama Limited) until that facility was vacated later in favor of consolidating all Amtrak services at Chicago's Union Station. The Floridian began using Union Station on January 23, 1972.[1]: 82 

The southbound St. Petersburg section of the Floridian at Clearwater in 1979

Amtrak also began serving the west coast of Florida by splitting the now-daily South Wind into St. Petersburg and Miami sections. The train split at Auburndale, with one section continuing to Miami and another going to St. Petersburg via Tampa. On November 14, the South Wind was reconfigured as the Floridian. The St. Petersburg and Miami sections were retained, but the split now occurred in Orlando, with the St. Petersburg section serving Tampa and the Miami section serving Winter Haven.[2] The split was moved further north to Jacksonville by the implementation of the April 1973 timetable.[3]

On paper, the new Floridian should have been a success. It ran through several major Midwestern and Southern cities (Chicago, Louisville, Nashville, Birmingham) en route to Florida, and its predecessor had existed for over three decades. As well as Chicago–Florida passengers, the Floridian carried significant intra-Florida traffic as well as short-distance passengers on the L&N portion.[4]

However, it was fraught with problems. It had to contend with deteriorating Penn Central (PC)/ex-New York Central (NYC) track in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky, which resulted in occasional use of MoPac (former Chicago & Eastern Illinois) and L&N (former Chicago, Indianapolis & Louisville: Monon) routes north of Louisville.[5] In January 1977, the Floridian was cancelled for two weeks due to severe winter weather in Chicago.[6] Two other long-distance Penn Central trains retained by Amtrak, the National Limited (successor to another PRR mainstay, the Spirit of St. Louis) and the James Whitcomb Riley, were plagued by similar problems.

During Amtrak's tenure, it continued to utilize E-units from many railroads before replacing them with then-new EMD SDP40F locomotives which began arriving in the mid-1970s. Unfortunately, these engines had a tendency to derail, especially on rickety PC trackage. The train suffered terrible delays and frequent derailments, including one at 10 miles per hour (16 km/h). The consists remained steam-heated, and never received Head-End Power (HEP) equipment.

The Floridian was briefly combined with the Auto-Train Corporation's Louisville, KentuckySanford, Florida Auto-Train service in the mid-1970s. The success with the original Lorton, Virginia—Sanford Auto-Train did not replicate itself on the Louisville—Sanford run, in part due to the severe delays on the Floridian, and the Louisville—Sanford Auto-Train was suspended indefinitely a few years before Auto-Train Corporation itself finally succumbed to financial difficulties in April 1981. As part of this move Amtrak stopped serving Union Station in Louisville on November 1, 1976, instead using Auto-Train Corp's station near Louisville International Airport. This continued until the Floridian's discontinuance.[1]: 221 

In 1979, the United States Department of Transportation compiled a report that recommended the reduction of services on several routes that did not meet a metric for cost coverage. Per this report, the Carter administration required all Amtrak routes to meet a minimum cost/farebox ratio or face discontinuance. Unfortunately, the aforementioned track issues and delays resulted in a steep decline in ridership for the Floridian. It made its last run on October 9, 1979, and was shuttered along with the National Limited, North Coast Hiawatha, Lone Star, and Champion, thus rolling back some of the key parts of the Amtrak system and also alleviating some of the losses it had incurred since its May 1, 1971, founding.

Proposed restoration

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There has been no concrete effort to re-establish direct Chicago-Miami service, either on the route of the South Wind/Floridian or on that of its partners the City of Miami and Dixie Flagler. During the early 2000s, Amtrak extended the Kentucky Cardinal to a re-opened Louisville Union Station, then discontinued the train again.

In the 2000s, Nashville residents proposed restoring train service to the city.[7] However, in 2007 Tennessee state officials said resumption of service was unlikely, since federal funds were unavailable. Officials also stated that there was insufficient demand to justify restoring rail service at the time.[7]

In June 2021, Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) added an amendment to the Surface Transportation Investment Act of 2021 which requires the Department of Transportation (not Amtrak itself) to evaluate the restoration of discontinued long-distance routes, such as the Floridian.[8][9] The bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee with bipartisan support,[10][11] and was later rolled into President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), which was passed into law in November 2021.[12] The report must be delivered to Congress within two years.[13] The law also provides $2.4 billion in new funds to Amtrak's long-distance route network.[14]

On October 28, 2022, the FRA announced the beginning of the Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study as required by the IIJA. Its purpose is to evaluate the restoration and addition of discontinued and new long-distance passenger services, as well as the upgrading of tri-weekly long-distance services (the Sunset Limited and the Cardinal) to daily operation. The criteria for either restoring or creating new long-distance routes are that they connect large and small communities as part of a "regional rail network", provide economic and social well-being for rural areas, provide "enhanced connectivity" for the existing long-distance passenger trains, and reflect the support and engagement of the locals and region for restored long-distance passenger service.[15] These criteria include the Floridian, among other trains. The study will take place through 2023, and will engage with stakeholders, the rail companies, and communities as it "evaluates how to better connect people with long-distance rail services".[16]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Sanders, Craig (2006). Amtrak in the Heartland. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-34705-3.
  2. ^ "Nationwide Schedules of Intercity Passenger Service". Amtrak. January 16, 1972. p. 67. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  3. ^ "All-America Schedules". Amtrak. April 29, 1973. p. 34. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  4. ^ Ingles, J. David (July 1974). "Amtrak South". Trains. Vol. 34, no. 9. pp. 32–34.
  5. ^ Brian, Brian (August 1, 2023). "Amtrak Floridian service remembered". Classic Trains. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
  6. ^ "Amtrak Floridian Back In Service". Ocala Star-Banner. February 3, 1977. p. 6. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
  7. ^ a b Howard, Kate (July 2, 2007). "Fans of rail want Amtrak here; Nashville not ready to support train service, state says". The Tennessean. Retrieved October 30, 2012.
  8. ^ Kidston, Martin (June 23, 2021). "Montana's passenger rail authority poised for boost from Tester transportation amendment". Missoula Current. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  9. ^ Kidston, Martin (February 21, 2022). "Pending federal passenger rail study likely to include southern Montana route". Missoula Current. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
  10. ^ "Key Policy Victories in Senate Rail Title". www.railpassengers.org. Rail Passengers Association. June 16, 2021. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  11. ^ Luczak, Marybeth (June 17, 2021). "Senate Commerce Committee's Bipartisan $78B Surface Transportation Bill Advances". Railway Age. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  12. ^ "What's in the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA)?". www.railpassengers.org. Rail Passengers Association. November 8, 2021. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  13. ^ "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act" (PDF). pp. 285–256. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
  14. ^ Kidston, Martin (November 10, 2021). "Infrastructure bill boosts regional effort to restore passenger rail to southern MT". KTVH. Retrieved November 16, 2021.
  15. ^ "Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study". fralongdistancerailstudy.org. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
  16. ^ "FRA launches passenger long-distance study site". Trains.com. Retrieved November 1, 2022.
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