20:33 Coach passengers are welcome in the dining car! Some attendants are better at advertising it than others, but we took advantage a couple times to avoid the cafe food ;) Thanks for featuring my "dialogue breaks"! 😂
Yup, as mentioned, the Capitol Limited and Silver Star were combined to create this temporary route. Besides the Superliner shortage you mentioned, the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project in New York (it was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy back in 2012, and so they require upgrades to modernize critical NEC infrastructure) requires closing one tunnel tube at a time to safely and efficiently conduct modernization work, resulting in minor capacity limits on train operations in this area. Amtrak uses the East River Tunnel not just for NEC service, but also for Sunnyside Yard. By removing the Superliners from the Capitol Limited so they can be used on popular western long-distance routes, and redirecting the Silver Star away from NYC, they're killing two birds with one stone by combining the two. The Capitol Limited is named for the Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited, originally running between Chicago's Grand Central Station (not to be confused with NYC's GCT; Chicago's Grand Central Station closed in 1969 and demolished in 1971) and NYC via DC. It existed as a B&O route from 1923 to 1971, and it was the B&O's flagship train. The B&O was the first railroad to introduce air conditioning on its trains, beginning with the Columbian in 1931, followed by the Capitol Limited in May 1932. After the Pennsy ended its contract with the B&O in 1926, the B&O served Communipaw Terminal in what's now Jersey City's Liberty State Park instead. In 1958, B&O discontinued service north of Baltimore Camden Station. Amtrak started running the Capitol Limited in 1981 as a replacement for the Shenandoah, which ran between DC and Cincinnati. The Silver Star began in 1947 was originally a flagship service of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad alongside the Silver Meteor (Silver Meteor started in 1939. It ran from New York to Miami and later also St. Petersburg (beyond Tampa). In peak winter service in the mid-1950s it had a section that went to St. Petersburg via Tampa. Another section went to Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island via Tampa. SAL merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967 to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Both the Silver Meteor and Silver Star got their names from a contest. Before the contest, the Silver Star was called the Advance Silver Meteor. Silver Meteor in turn was selected in a contest with 30 people among 76,000 entrants proposing the winning name. Even though it's named after the old Chicago-Miami Floridian route, it of course doesn't follow that same route. As this is temporary, this is not the final product for a Chicago-Miami route, since their goal is a route stopping at Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Orlando (no Tampa). Other historic Chicago-Miami routes included the City of Miami (Illinois Central), the South Wind (the Pennsy, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad/later Seaboard Coast Line, and the FEC), and the Dixie Flagler (FEC), with the latter stopping in Atlanta and Chattanooga unlike the other two, though the South Wind stopped in Indianapolis and Lafayette. The old Amtrak Floridian between 1971 and 1979 stopped at places like Valdosta, Georgia, Lafayette, Indiana, Birmingham, Nashville, and Louisville. 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. It was also briefly combined with the Auto-Train's former Kentucky route (yes, the Auto-Train once had a second route to Louisville), but the Louisville Auto Train route didn't last long because of severe delays on the Floridian, thus when Auto-Train ended in 1981 and Amtrak revived it in 1983, it only took over the Virginia route. Amtrak stopped serving Louisville Union Station in 1976, instead using Auto-Train Corp's stop near the airport. In 1979, the Carter admin 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, which is why it ended that year.
I am so grateful that Amtrak has finally dumped their ridiculous "Flex-Menu" option offered aboard the Capitol Limited and now offers "Traditional", sit-down dining car service on the Floridian. I'm going to relish once again the joy of a nice meal while watching the C&O Canal and the Potomac river go by while traveling through the Paw-Paw Bends.
This video was awesome! I was excited when I heard about the Floridian being announced, and I'm glad it's finally in service now! I live near New York, though, so I guess I now have to make a connection in Washington DC unless I can afford to book the Lake Shore Limited or the Silver Meteor. I also didn't know you knew Miles in Transit! I watch his channel all the time, and I happen to be a big fan of him and always enjoy watching his videos! Sometimes they're pretty funny!
Here are some facts about the places along the route: The Hollywood in Florida was named such because of Joseph Young. In 1920, Joseph Young arrived in South Florida to create his own "Dream City in Florida". Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920, and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real-estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York. After Young spent millions of dollars constructing the city, he was elected its first mayor in 1925. Young chose the name Hollywood not because of the one in California or because of holly bushes, but simply because he liked the sound of it, and the one in California wasn't the only Hollywood at the time since there are eighteen Hollywoods in the US. As mentioned, Richmond has another Amtrak stop, Richmond Main St downtown (though New Haven, Stockton, Philadelphia, and Newark, NJ have two Amtrak stations; and with Amtrak expanding to Scranton, Newark Broad St will become Newark's third Amtrak station). Los Angeles and Boston both have three Amtrak stations within city limits, LA have Union Station, Van Nuys, and Chatsworth while Boston have South Station, Back Bay, and North Station. Staples Mill Road was built in 1975 as a replacement for Main Street Station, which had been heavily damaged by flooding from Hurricane Agnes. At its opening, it also inherited trains that had called at Richmond's other former union station, Broad Street Station. When Amtrak restored service to Main St in 2003, only Newport News-bound NER trains stop at both Richmond Main St and Staples Mill Road, so most Amtrak trains have only stopped at Staples Mill Road. However the aim is to expand service to Main St, as Richmond Main St is planned to be on the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor. The Capitol Limited was involved in the deadliest crash in MARC’s history when it collided with a MARC Train near Silver Spring in February 1996. Eleven people on the MARC train ended up dying. Three from injuries, while the rest from smoke. This includes the MARC engineer and two conductors. 15 passengers and crew were injured on the Capitol Limited. It was concluded that the MARC crew forgot the approach signal aspect of the Kensington color-position signal after making a flag stop at Kensington. This collision led to the creation of comprehensive federal rules for passenger car design, the first in the history of American passenger train service. Harpers Ferry station in WV is owned by the National Park Service and is a part of the Harpers Ferry Historic District, which are parts of the town not included within the National Historical Park. The district is a group of early 19th century buildings built by the government for workers for the Harpers Ferry Armory, as well as the location of John Brown’s failed abolitionist uprising. The B&O played a major role in stopping the raid, making its rolling stock available to the military so they could go to a bridge at Sandy Hook, MD by train and cross by foot. Maryland has a panhandle because it lobbied the Continental Congress to keep some of its western lands to access farmland and the Mississippi River. Cumberland in Allegany County was established in 1785 and was named after the son of King George II, Prince William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland. It was once known as the Queen City, as at one point in time, it was the state’s second largest city. Maryland's Royal Charter set its northern border at 40N, which turned out to be in the middle of Philadelphia, a conflict eventually resolved in Pennsylvania's favor when Maryland's northern border was moved in 1732 to a line 15 miles south of South Street. The dispute dragged on however until 1763 when two of England's most eminent scientists were commissioned to survey the border westwards thus creating the famous Mason-Dixon line. Between Pittsburgh and Connellsville, the Capitol Limited used to stop at the McKeesport Transportation Center. This station was also served by the former PATrain commuter rail service between Versailles and Pittsburgh
This was the first inaugural completion today and it ended in Chicago just around 8 hours ago. This was a really quick video to get out. Congratulations!!
A little history on those Amfleet II cars. I was stationed in Ft Bragg back in the 90s. My ex wife was from the Rocky Mount area. I would ride the train between Fayetteville and Rocky Mount or Wilson. I also rode the Florida trains North and South. The Amfleet IIs used have video monitors and would play movies during the trip. The Silver Service trains also used to have Slumbercoaches. These were the best of both worlds. It was a small room for one person. The room had a seat that folded into a bed. It had a fold down water basin and a smaĺl pad seat that lifted up to a toilet. It was convenient so you didn't have to walk out of your room to use the facilities. These cars were the old cars that had the staggered windows. I wish they'd remake these cars. (Now I'll get some explanation on how they're not coming back or some other nonsense.)
The "Slumbercoaches" were the original "heritage fleet" sleepers inherited from the railways. Amtrak did electrify them (heating and power from loco instead of generators driven by wheels). The roomette you were in were a very standard desiogn, and you'll recognize the sinks in the Viewliner from the original norm american sleeping cars. There were two types of these sleeping cars, the "duplex" with the staggered windows and the standard ones. In the duplex one, one roomette's bed slid under the floor of the next roomette (and its bed pulled down from the wall). The duplex roomettes were more compact than than standard ones. (In Canada, VIA Rails inherited long distance cars from CP have the Chateau cars as duplex, and the Manors as the standard ones - they are going fast because VIA stopped buying spare parts and is instead cannibalizing cars for parts and no longer has enough in what is left of its fleet to retore original frequencies). The original roomettes were strictly for one person (and it was a challenge to pull down the bed with you still in roomette) (with bed down, the toilet and the bench over it were covered by bed so not accessible), When amtrak designed the Vewlliners they decided to make the roomette for two due to higher ceiling and initially kept the toilet which makes less sense when you have 2 persons. Also, while original toilets were simple (dumped onto tracks), moden toilets are aircraft style and have to suck contents into a tank and are expensive to maintain, so removing them from rooms was a huge cost saving). (and yes, Amtrak designed the viewliner interiors and then had First Viewliners built by Morrisson Knudse and second batch by CAF. The heritage fleet was limited to 160kmh while Viewliners are 200kmh so on the NE Corridor will go at same speed as rest of fleet. Trains like the Silver Star/Meteor/Crescent still had heritage dining and baggage cars until the Viewliner 2 were delivered at which point speed of train on the corridor could increate from 160 to 200.
While this train fulfills a need (mainly by freeing up Superliners for other trains), 46 hours from Miami to Chicago is utterly ridiculous. A direct train going thru Atlanta and Nashville should cut the time down to 28 hours or less and take most of the MIA-CHI passengers off this train, and I'm convinced it WILL happen. And hopefully the Crescent will get its Traditional Dining back soon. As usual, thanks for a great video.
The old Floridian took 2 overnights to travel from Chicago to Orlando, This Floridian takes 2 overnights to travel from. Chicago to Orlando. A more direct route will take 10 years for the route to get up and going. Let's take what we can get and work on a direct route also.
I guess if you want to get from Miami to Chicago more quickly, you’d fly wouldn’t you? This is great way to take in the scenery and enjoy it as part of a holiday.
While you are correct, your assuming they have the ability to just go anywhere. Any route Amtrak takes has to have certain infrastructure, and not all rail lines in the U.S are up to the standard needed. Taking the old route the Floridian took allows them to setup something new while not putting out too much expense upgrading routes on other lines for a once a day service.
Thank you, thank you! I have a daughter in Chicago. We have traveled Port Saint Lucie, FL to Chicago both driving and flying. I actually never thought to travel by train. Thanks to you I have another alternative!! Again, THANKS!
The roomette is fine for two people. My husband & I took it from NY to Florida and back several times. We never had any problems with it. Space was fine.
Looking forward to next year's trip on the Lake Shore Limited, in Viewliner II for the first time; I was able to request it over the Viewliner I when booking by phone. Now if the beautiful new dining car would serve real food like on the Floridian, it would be great. Nice to see the other UA-camrs on the train!
In the uk. I needed to get somewhere that was 25 minutes by car. But because of the privatisation and many closures to branch lines it takes me 2 hours to get there by train. Safe to say i didnt go.
I was there to watch the first Floridian train come into Hamlet. That was my bike at the station. I was on the north side of the diamond on the side your riding on. Excellent video!!!
You definitely have to come to Europe to try 21st century trains and good, quality food. It made me sad and funny at the same time, seeing that lettuce like a wilted flower.
Us and most of the Amtrak community are accustomed to riding The Texas Eagle between Chicago and Las Angeles 🚆 most of us will sleep on that train for 10 nights but the Superliner cars are very dark and dreary with the lack of natural light
My last Rail trip started at the same station! 2 years ago! I wish they could have started from the Station at the Miami Airport, but maybe in the future! Other than the work in front, the station looks the same! I hope this leads to a westward line to California in the future! I also hear that they will eventually have Amtrak in Downtown Miami's Brightline station in the future! I like them changing crews as neither route lost crew due to them combining! BTW, in Miami's Railroad museum are a few of those Gallery cars! BTW, Great Job Justin! 🎉
Glad to see you made it for the first run. There are two reasons this "new" service is running - 1) Amtrak is very of double decker Superliner cars. This allows Superliners used on the Capital Limited to be used on other western long distance trains. Amtrak's Beech Grove shops are slowly catching up on the backlog of out of service Superliner cars. 2) The East River tunnels in New York are being repaired after being damaged by hurricane Sandy almost 12 years ago. There are four single track tunnels with at least one and possibly two being out of service. This is a major choke point with both Amtrak and Long Island Railroad trains using the tunnels. This way the Silver Star's equipment doesn't have to use these tunnels to get to Sunnyside yards where the train is serviced. These repairs are expected to take three years. I'm actually surprised Amtrak's not turning the Crescent, the Cardinal and the Silver Meteor at Washington. BTW - Mr. Constant please do all rail supporters in the US a favor and get the heck off X. The guy who owns and runs it is as anti rail as they come. The whole Hyperloop thing was a pie in the sky (or is that pie in the ground?) attempt to torpedo CAHSR. There's lots of social media platforms out there for you to be on such as Mastodon, Threads, Discord, Facebook and Snap Chat to name a few.
A lot of people on Twitter have been jumping ship to other sites, most recently, Bluesky. So I think Bluesky could be a site to promote all this pro-rail stuff.
Anti-rail? If rail will ever become viable again in the US it will be because of Musk. Certainly not because of this crappy, gov't subsidized, over-priced, and tenuous "service"
@@lalakerspro I believe 3 are currently 'temporarily' suspended due to repair work in the East River Tunnels in New York. It remains to be seen if they actually do bring those services back.
"I'm looking at you, Houston!" - well, I had the pleasure to travel on Amtrak from New York to Atlanta quite a few years ago. The train stopped and the conductor told me "this is your stop". I said: "No man, that can't be." "Yeah, this is Atlanta!" I was in shock that a metropolis of millions of people could have such a railway station!
I took the Captial Limited from Sandusky to Pittsburgh (then transfered to the Pennsylvanian) and it was about an hour late to Sandusky, but made up most of the time to Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvanian was also just fashionably late getting into electric territory (although it only uses it on the corridor, and I got off before Philadelphia since I live closer to Paoli than Philadelphia)
Мы годами ждали этого поезда, и 10 ноября Amtrak наконец представила свой прямой поезд из Майами в Чикаго, и Джастин был на самом первом поезде, отправляющемся из Майами в направлении Города Ветров… Наслаждайтесь!
Thumbs up for a cross-channel Miles appearance. Now if only TRA Thom, Classy Whale, Jeb Brooks and Paul Lucas had been on this train, then the entire universe itself would have imploded.
you were given a Roomette in the Viewliner 1 car with the Toilet in the room. I insist on the NEWER Viewliner 2 cars with the dark Pink upholstery and No Toilet in the room.
Maybe Amtrak will reintroduce this train if its very successful... Otherwise once the East River tunnels repairs are completed the Silver Star will return.... Amtrak most successful long distance trains are the Silver trains running to Florida along the east coast...
I think the purpose was not to free up cars, but lower the burden on Penn station in NYC because of infrastructure projects. By cutting the portion of the Silver Metror (?) between NYC and DC, that achieved some of that goal and it was easy for them to combine the DC Florida section with the capital limited
I use to live there. Never in my wildest dream I thought I see a direct train from hamlet to Chicago. I rode the sliver star quite frequently to nyc as a kid and rode it to Jacksonville a couple of times.
Reminds me of the City of Miami, another passenger train ran by the Illinois Central railroad that ran from Chicago to Miami, and vice versa. However, I dont think they ran East to West as the new Floridian does now 😆
Please be aware that the area outside the fence of the Miami train station is dangerous. The station itself is crappy but the Amtrak workers are nice and helpful.
...Amtrak and Brightline are arguing about the length of the station platform at the new downtown station to accommodate peak season train length; the 36th st Miami station has a limited life left.
Here are the reasons for this new Floridian service: 1). To allocate the Superliners to their Western trains. 2). is to Reduce the amount train traffic going in and out of New York so the tunnels leading to Penn Station can be repaired, which have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy some years ago and until now, haven't been repaired properly if at all.
You are lucky! In the UK there is no way that showers etcetera would be clean and working properly after being left at the mercy of the general public for two days! You must have unheard of things like adequate numbers of cleaning and maintenance staff and effective servicing facilities 😇
@@thebabbler8867 Agreed, compared to China and mainland Europe the US is at present lacking in passenger railways. However they do have a huge and well-used freight system. The UK, although only a small island, is very poorly served by an outdated and chaotic rail network. Only around 7% of all freight is carried by rail. There are parts of the South of England that have expensive but otherwise not unreasonable passenger rail services, though even there trains are often cancelled. Elsewhere, many relatively large towns have no rail connection and where there are stations they are often poorly served by slow, infrequent, unreliable, expensive, dirty and ancient or poorly-built trains that are nonetheless often overcrowded at peak times.
@thebabbler8867 the uk is literally the size of a small US state lol, if you compared rails in the UK with new york, new york would win. Comparing tiny UK with huge US doesnt make sense
@ Not that chestnut: nowadays many UK celebs have their teeth polished and the dental health of the average American is probably worse than in the UK. Have you ever been here?😇
I rode the last Floridian, (only Lafayette-Chicago) and had taken that train quite a few times in the 70's. That route is long gone in southern Indiana, and the existing route that is used by the Cardinal has been downgraded by CSX from 79 mph track to 59 mph. A trip that used to take 2.5 hrs LAF-CHI now takes closer to 4 hours. I will be very surprised if Amtrak survives much longer after the recent election, so ride it while you can.
I seem to remember taking the train with my parents from Chicago to Florida in the 60s and it was just an overnight trip. This was pre-Amtrak. So why can’t this be again?
6:08 I know that some people like the convenience of a certain amenity in the Viewliner I roomettes, but I’m with Lonestar Trip Reports. I would find the idea of sleeping next to a toilet disgusting.
If I remember correctly this was the name of an older Amtrak train that they stopped. And I believe this will act like a replacement for the Silver Star until it returns in a few years. If that is the case, I hope that this service can stay.
Your guess is as good as mine... Amtrak train routes are LINEAR, passenger embark and disembark along the route... Amtrak is not flying non stop point to point...
Great trip, thanks Justin. I'm a little intrigued as to why Amtrak don't "top'n'tail" the locmotives (ie: one at each end of the train). That would eliminate the need to use the 'y' junction in Tampa as the crew would just have to walk the length of the train to complete the reversal. Equaly, the loco crew could be changed by having the out-bound crew waiting at the DC end of the platform and the inbound crew disembarking at the 'stops' end. That's just my take on the operation. No doubt Amtrak have their reasons for doing things the way they do. Thankd, Thibault for the editing.
@@lalakerspro If there are 2 locos assigned to a train, surely it's a practical idea to put one at the leading end and the other at the trailing end with no need for additional locos (3 or more)? it's common practice here in the UK.
When more ALC-42’s go online maybe. And the freed ACS-64’s (because no more Silver Star to NYC) have actually been slowly put on the Northeast Regional for a push-pull service. Also also the American equivalent of the Railjet, Amtrak’s future Airo sets, are coming some time in the future both electric and diesel versions and I think once those slowly start coming out we’ll begin to see more long distance trains set up push-pull style as more and more engines get freed up by Airos replacing them
A Chicago-Terre Haute- Vincennes-Evansville-Nashville, Chattanooga-Atlanta-Waycross, Jacksonville-Miami route could be done in about 36 hours (from evening, after business hours, to before business hours the second morning) instead of 46 hours. That would be two nights in a sleeping car and three to five meala in the dining or dinette car, well-rested, showered and ready for business in either Miami or Chicago.
I would probably have kept the Silver Star and made the Floridian take the Silver Meteor’s old route since the Palmetto also follows that and provides service from New York.
20:33 Coach passengers are welcome in the dining car! Some attendants are better at advertising it than others, but we took advantage a couple times to avoid the cafe food ;)
Thanks for featuring my "dialogue breaks"! 😂
it's a tradition of mine to always splurge on the last meal of any long-distance coach trip in the dining car if possible
When do we get your video?
@@johnadams6535 Tomorrow, hopefully. I do not work nearly as fast as Thibault! 😂
@@MilesinTransit Will it be apparently a trip report?
@ Yup!
The Miles in Transit Cinematic Universe grows day by day…
Also, great video!
Yup, as mentioned, the Capitol Limited and Silver Star were combined to create this temporary route. Besides the Superliner shortage you mentioned, the East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project in New York (it was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy back in 2012, and so they require upgrades to modernize critical NEC infrastructure) requires closing one tunnel tube at a time to safely and efficiently conduct modernization work, resulting in minor capacity limits on train operations in this area. Amtrak uses the East River Tunnel not just for NEC service, but also for Sunnyside Yard. By removing the Superliners from the Capitol Limited so they can be used on popular western long-distance routes, and redirecting the Silver Star away from NYC, they're killing two birds with one stone by combining the two. The Capitol Limited is named for the Baltimore & Ohio's Capitol Limited, originally running between Chicago's Grand Central Station (not to be confused with NYC's GCT; Chicago's Grand Central Station closed in 1969 and demolished in 1971) and NYC via DC. It existed as a B&O route from 1923 to 1971, and it was the B&O's flagship train. The B&O was the first railroad to introduce air conditioning on its trains, beginning with the Columbian in 1931, followed by the Capitol Limited in May 1932. After the Pennsy ended its contract with the B&O in 1926, the B&O served Communipaw Terminal in what's now Jersey City's Liberty State Park instead. In 1958, B&O discontinued service north of Baltimore Camden Station. Amtrak started running the Capitol Limited in 1981 as a replacement for the Shenandoah, which ran between DC and Cincinnati. The Silver Star began in 1947 was originally a flagship service of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad alongside the Silver Meteor (Silver Meteor started in 1939. It ran from New York to Miami and later also St. Petersburg (beyond Tampa). In peak winter service in the mid-1950s it had a section that went to St. Petersburg via Tampa. Another section went to Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island via Tampa. SAL merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1967 to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad. Both the Silver Meteor and Silver Star got their names from a contest. Before the contest, the Silver Star was called the Advance Silver Meteor. Silver Meteor in turn was selected in a contest with 30 people among 76,000 entrants proposing the winning name.
Even though it's named after the old Chicago-Miami Floridian route, it of course doesn't follow that same route. As this is temporary, this is not the final product for a Chicago-Miami route, since their goal is a route stopping at Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Jacksonville, and Orlando (no Tampa). Other historic Chicago-Miami routes included the City of Miami (Illinois Central), the South Wind (the Pennsy, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad/later Seaboard Coast Line, and the FEC), and the Dixie Flagler (FEC), with the latter stopping in Atlanta and Chattanooga unlike the other two, though the South Wind stopped in Indianapolis and Lafayette. The old Amtrak Floridian between 1971 and 1979 stopped at places like Valdosta, Georgia, Lafayette, Indiana, Birmingham, Nashville, and Louisville. 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. It was also briefly combined with the Auto-Train's former Kentucky route (yes, the Auto-Train once had a second route to Louisville), but the Louisville Auto Train route didn't last long because of severe delays on the Floridian, thus when Auto-Train ended in 1981 and Amtrak revived it in 1983, it only took over the Virginia route. Amtrak stopped serving Louisville Union Station in 1976, instead using Auto-Train Corp's stop near the airport. In 1979, the Carter admin 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, which is why it ended that year.
Awesome history lesson! You have my thanks for it.
Thank you for this write up! Very interesting!
I am so grateful that Amtrak has finally dumped their ridiculous "Flex-Menu" option offered aboard the Capitol Limited and now offers "Traditional", sit-down dining car service on the Floridian. I'm going to relish once again the joy of a nice meal while watching the C&O Canal and the Potomac river go by while traveling through the Paw-Paw Bends.
I hope they can do it on other eastern routes.
Half expected Miles to pop up singing "Menu Shot"
Menu shot menu shot right now your looking at the menue shot
This video was awesome! I was excited when I heard about the Floridian being announced, and I'm glad it's finally in service now! I live near New York, though, so I guess I now have to make a connection in Washington DC unless I can afford to book the Lake Shore Limited or the Silver Meteor.
I also didn't know you knew Miles in Transit! I watch his channel all the time, and I happen to be a big fan of him and always enjoy watching his videos! Sometimes they're pretty funny!
Great video, and it’s good to see that this through train is now operating, and includes a reversal into Tampa !
Here are some facts about the places along the route: The Hollywood in Florida was named such because of Joseph Young. In 1920, Joseph Young arrived in South Florida to create his own "Dream City in Florida". Young bought up thousands of acres of land around 1920, and named his new town "Hollywood by the Sea" to distinguish it from his other real-estate venture, "Hollywood in the Hills", in New York. After Young spent millions of dollars constructing the city, he was elected its first mayor in 1925. Young chose the name Hollywood not because of the one in California or because of holly bushes, but simply because he liked the sound of it, and the one in California wasn't the only Hollywood at the time since there are eighteen Hollywoods in the US. As mentioned, Richmond has another Amtrak stop, Richmond Main St downtown (though New Haven, Stockton, Philadelphia, and Newark, NJ have two Amtrak stations; and with Amtrak expanding to Scranton, Newark Broad St will become Newark's third Amtrak station). Los Angeles and Boston both have three Amtrak stations within city limits, LA have Union Station, Van Nuys, and Chatsworth while Boston have South Station, Back Bay, and North Station. Staples Mill Road was built in 1975 as a replacement for Main Street Station, which had been heavily damaged by flooding from Hurricane Agnes. At its opening, it also inherited trains that had called at Richmond's other former union station, Broad Street Station. When Amtrak restored service to Main St in 2003, only Newport News-bound NER trains stop at both Richmond Main St and Staples Mill Road, so most Amtrak trains have only stopped at Staples Mill Road. However the aim is to expand service to Main St, as Richmond Main St is planned to be on the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor.
The Capitol Limited was involved in the deadliest crash in MARC’s history when it collided with a MARC Train near Silver Spring in February 1996. Eleven people on the MARC train ended up dying. Three from injuries, while the rest from smoke. This includes the MARC engineer and two conductors. 15 passengers and crew were injured on the Capitol Limited. It was concluded that the MARC crew forgot the approach signal aspect of the Kensington color-position signal after making a flag stop at Kensington. This collision led to the creation of comprehensive federal rules for passenger car design, the first in the history of American passenger train service. Harpers Ferry station in WV is owned by the National Park Service and is a part of the Harpers Ferry Historic District, which are parts of the town not included within the National Historical Park. The district is a group of early 19th century buildings built by the government for workers for the Harpers Ferry Armory, as well as the location of John Brown’s failed abolitionist uprising. The B&O played a major role in stopping the raid, making its rolling stock available to the military so they could go to a bridge at Sandy Hook, MD by train and cross by foot. Maryland has a panhandle because it lobbied the Continental Congress to keep some of its western lands to access farmland and the Mississippi River. Cumberland in Allegany County was established in 1785 and was named after the son of King George II, Prince William Augustus, the Duke of Cumberland. It was once known as the Queen City, as at one point in time, it was the state’s second largest city. Maryland's Royal Charter set its northern border at 40N, which turned out to be in the middle of Philadelphia, a conflict eventually resolved in Pennsylvania's favor when Maryland's northern border was moved in 1732 to a line 15 miles south of South Street. The dispute dragged on however until 1763 when two of England's most eminent scientists were commissioned to survey the border westwards thus creating the famous Mason-Dixon line. Between Pittsburgh and Connellsville, the Capitol Limited used to stop at the McKeesport Transportation Center. This station was also served by the former PATrain commuter rail service between Versailles and Pittsburgh
Hello Simply Railway! I filmed your train as you traversed through the Carolinas. Looks like a wonderful ride!
1:58 Justin’s Hello was so cute 🙈
Wow 🎉This Floridian train looks amazing after it discontinued Floridian in 1979 it finally Revived
This was the first inaugural completion today and it ended in Chicago just around 8 hours ago. This was a really quick video to get out. Congratulations!!
A little history on those Amfleet II cars. I was stationed in Ft Bragg back in the 90s. My ex wife was from the Rocky Mount area. I would ride the train between Fayetteville and Rocky Mount or Wilson. I also rode the Florida trains North and South. The Amfleet IIs used have video monitors and would play movies during the trip.
The Silver Service trains also used to have Slumbercoaches. These were the best of both worlds. It was a small room for one person. The room had a seat that folded into a bed. It had a fold down water basin and a smaĺl pad seat that lifted up to a toilet. It was convenient so you didn't have to walk out of your room to use the facilities. These cars were the old cars that had the staggered windows. I wish they'd remake these cars. (Now I'll get some explanation on how they're not coming back or some other nonsense.)
The "Slumbercoaches" were the original "heritage fleet" sleepers inherited from the railways. Amtrak did electrify them (heating and power from loco instead of generators driven by wheels). The roomette you were in were a very standard desiogn, and you'll recognize the sinks in the Viewliner from the original norm american sleeping cars. There were two types of these sleeping cars, the "duplex" with the staggered windows and the standard ones. In the duplex one, one roomette's bed slid under the floor of the next roomette (and its bed pulled down from the wall). The duplex roomettes were more compact than than standard ones. (In Canada, VIA Rails inherited long distance cars from CP have the Chateau cars as duplex, and the Manors as the standard ones - they are going fast because VIA stopped buying spare parts and is instead cannibalizing cars for parts and no longer has enough in what is left of its fleet to retore original frequencies).
The original roomettes were strictly for one person (and it was a challenge to pull down the bed with you still in roomette) (with bed down, the toilet and the bench over it were covered by bed so not accessible), When amtrak designed the Vewlliners they decided to make the roomette for two due to higher ceiling and initially kept the toilet which makes less sense when you have 2 persons. Also, while original toilets were simple (dumped onto tracks), moden toilets are aircraft style and have to suck contents into a tank and are expensive to maintain, so removing them from rooms was a huge cost saving). (and yes, Amtrak designed the viewliner interiors and then had
First Viewliners built by Morrisson Knudse and second batch by CAF. The heritage fleet was limited to 160kmh while Viewliners are 200kmh so on the NE Corridor will go at same speed as rest of fleet. Trains like the Silver Star/Meteor/Crescent still had heritage dining and baggage cars until the Viewliner 2 were delivered at which point speed of train on the corridor could increate from 160 to 200.
A really new-old Floridian going from Chicago to Miami via Atlanta would be awesome.
The former Floridian did NOT serve Atlanta, it went through Jackson TN, Birmingham AL, and Albany GA around the Appalachians, not through them...
This is very nice vacation. Traveling by train in days and seeing amazing scenic views. While also watching anime.😅
I filmed your train in Deerfield Beach, Florida!
While this train fulfills a need (mainly by freeing up Superliners for other trains), 46 hours from Miami to Chicago is utterly ridiculous. A direct train going thru Atlanta and Nashville should cut the time down to 28 hours or less and take most of the MIA-CHI passengers off this train, and I'm convinced it WILL happen. And hopefully the Crescent will get its Traditional Dining back soon. As usual, thanks for a great video.
Yeah I thought it was a silly route too... And also it's time to replace the superliners we need a new set of superliners ,superliner 3 perhaps?
I travel a lot from Atlanta to Chicago I would LOVE this
The old Floridian took 2 overnights to travel from Chicago to Orlando, This Floridian takes 2 overnights to travel from. Chicago to Orlando. A more direct route will take 10 years for the route to get up and going. Let's take what we can get and work on a direct route also.
I guess if you want to get from Miami to Chicago more quickly, you’d fly wouldn’t you? This is great way to take in the scenery and enjoy it as part of a holiday.
While you are correct, your assuming they have the ability to just go anywhere. Any route Amtrak takes has to have certain infrastructure, and not all rail lines in the U.S are up to the standard needed. Taking the old route the Floridian took allows them to setup something new while not putting out too much expense upgrading routes on other lines for a once a day service.
Thank you, thank you! I have a daughter in Chicago. We have traveled Port Saint Lucie, FL to Chicago both driving and flying. I actually never thought to travel by train. Thanks to you I have another alternative!! Again, THANKS!
Thank you for the trip!
The roomette is fine for two people. My husband & I took it from NY to Florida and back several times. We never had any problems with it. Space was fine.
Awesome can't wait to ride this one day
sleep can wait a little longer, this first
Looking forward to next year's trip on the Lake Shore Limited, in Viewliner II for the first time; I was able to request it over the Viewliner I when booking by phone. Now if the beautiful new dining car would serve real food like on the Floridian, it would be great.
Nice to see the other UA-camrs on the train!
In the uk. I needed to get somewhere that was 25 minutes by car. But because of the privatisation and many closures to branch lines it takes me 2 hours to get there by train. Safe to say i didnt go.
29:30 - I recognize this location. It’s in Northwest Indiana, not Ohio (there’s a lot of rusty old factories like this there)
Thank you for the trip. Very beautiful.
I was there to watch the first Floridian train come into Hamlet. That was my bike at the station. I was on the north side of the diamond on the side your riding on. Excellent video!!!
You definitely have to come to Europe to try 21st century trains and good, quality food. It made me sad and funny at the same time, seeing that lettuce like a wilted flower.
bro had the video edited mere hours after the inaugural arrived at chicago, great work.
iirc going off of Miles' video a lot of them were editing the video while on-board to get it out ASAP
Simply Railway and Miles in Transit in the same video?
What is this? A crossover episode?
Love a train, my favorite trip to Fla from CT was on Amtrak when I was 10,,,, many many years ago😊
Wow..😮 that cool brother, i hope can try this.
Things got better...was a hell 7 years ago...between Dallas to Chicago.
Us and most of the Amtrak community are accustomed to riding The Texas Eagle between Chicago and Las Angeles 🚆 most of us will sleep on that train for 10 nights but the Superliner cars are very dark and dreary with the lack of natural light
The farthest you'll last on the Texas Eagle is on the way to Arkadelphia, Hope and Little Rock in Arkansas 🚆
Been waiting for this one finally Amtrak now goes to Chicago from Florida 👍🏿👍🏿👍🏿
Nice I caught your train at Gaithersburg, Maryland
Awesome video of the newest train
planning to take this train from Pittsburgh to Orlando hopefully in July! this answered a lot of my questions!
A great video thanks.
Excellent video, well done!
Cool vids as usual!!!!
Nice work, Justin - thanks!
holy crap that was quick
Bravo pour l’exclusivité 👏🏻
Such an epic journey! 🚆 Great to see a viaduct railway map featured in your video 🤩
They need a more direct route that goes through Kentucky and Tennessee.
Yeah, Louisville, Kentucky, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and Nashville, Tennessee needs Amtrak, and Bowling Green is the 3rd Popular city in Kentucky
Knoxville TN needs Amtrak service, too. Lots of freight trains through here, but no passenger trains. Very disappointing.
@kepckatherinec805 Oh yeah, I forgot about Knoxville
@@AnthonyVasquez0824 I would add Paducah to that list too!
The journey is probably quicker going through Washington DC than running on the very slow tracks in Kentucky and Tennessee with numerous grades...
My last Rail trip started at the same station! 2 years ago! I wish they could have started from the Station at the Miami Airport, but maybe in the future! Other than the work in front, the station looks the same! I hope this leads to a westward line to California in the future!
I also hear that they will eventually have Amtrak in Downtown Miami's Brightline station in the future!
I like them changing crews as neither route lost crew due to them combining! BTW, in Miami's Railroad museum are a few of those Gallery cars!
BTW, Great Job Justin! 🎉
Wow thibault the floridian is great
Wow, Amtrak P42 201 has a steel bell
That’s a beautiful train.
Thanks 😊
Your videos ROCK 💯! Thank you!❤
Looks great.
Glad to see you made it for the first run. There are two reasons this "new" service is running -
1) Amtrak is very of double decker Superliner cars. This allows Superliners used on the Capital Limited to be used on other western long distance trains. Amtrak's Beech Grove shops are slowly catching up on the backlog of out of service Superliner cars.
2) The East River tunnels in New York are being repaired after being damaged by hurricane Sandy almost 12 years ago. There are four single track tunnels with at least one and possibly two being out of service. This is a major choke point with both Amtrak and Long Island Railroad trains using the tunnels. This way the Silver Star's equipment doesn't have to use these tunnels to get to Sunnyside yards where the train is serviced. These repairs are expected to take three years. I'm actually surprised Amtrak's not turning the Crescent, the Cardinal and the Silver Meteor at Washington.
BTW - Mr. Constant please do all rail supporters in the US a favor and get the heck off X. The guy who owns and runs it is as anti rail as they come. The whole Hyperloop thing was a pie in the sky (or is that pie in the ground?) attempt to torpedo CAHSR. There's lots of social media platforms out there for you to be on such as Mastodon, Threads, Discord, Facebook and Snap Chat to name a few.
A lot of people on Twitter have been jumping ship to other sites, most recently, Bluesky. So I think Bluesky could be a site to promote all this pro-rail stuff.
Noted! I will get off very soon and head to Blue Sky ;)
Anti-rail? If rail will ever become viable again in the US it will be because of Musk. Certainly not because of this crappy, gov't subsidized, over-priced, and tenuous "service"
More trains the better
but creating this train unfortunately cause another one to go away...
@@lalakerspro I believe 3 are currently 'temporarily' suspended due to repair work in the East River Tunnels in New York. It remains to be seen if they actually do bring those services back.
Nice review.
Tampa is one of 2 cities where a trolley track crosses Amtrak route the other one is Memphis, TN. Both have running trolleys in public service.
"I'm looking at you, Houston!" - well, I had the pleasure to travel on Amtrak from New York to Atlanta quite a few years ago. The train stopped and the conductor told me "this is your stop". I said: "No man, that can't be." "Yeah, this is Atlanta!" I was in shock that a metropolis of millions of people could have such a railway station!
I filmed your train ride the first day it runned through Cary, hope you had fun.
Justin did a fine job of videoing , and I enjoyed his picture of the meals .
Thank you for taking time to share. Some people are not in position to travel so thank you ❤️
The funny thing is that i saw this very same train in for Lauderdale as i was headed to dave and busters.
Cool Vid, would love to fly over to America and go on these sleeper trains
Another excellent video; Very swift upload from filming. It looks a nice option for my next Amtrak adventure. Thanks for sharing 👍
That dinning room looks nicer then their average dining room car.
Thinking of doing this trip with my 81 year old mom from ORL to Chicago. We've never traveled by train. I'd get a bedroom for her though.
Didn't know you apparently do trip reports too
es una belleza
Your stop in Richmond Va made me realize how much I miss my hometown. Awesome video.
I took the Captial Limited from Sandusky to Pittsburgh (then transfered to the Pennsylvanian) and it was about an hour late to Sandusky, but made up most of the time to Pittsburgh. The Pennsylvanian was also just fashionably late getting into electric territory (although it only uses it on the corridor, and I got off before Philadelphia since I live closer to Paoli than Philadelphia)
I had worked at Cedar Point the summer, so that’s why Sandusky-Pittsburgh-Paoli was my first (so far only) Amtrak Long Distance trip
If you were at Deerfield Beach, Me And my friend @FECRF had standed right next to loco 355 with engineer Kyle giving us a great hornshow.
Мы годами ждали этого поезда, и 10 ноября Amtrak наконец представила свой прямой поезд из Майами в Чикаго, и Джастин был на самом первом поезде, отправляющемся из Майами в направлении Города Ветров… Наслаждайтесь!
Thumbs up for a cross-channel Miles appearance. Now if only TRA Thom, Classy Whale, Jeb Brooks and Paul Lucas had been on this train, then the entire universe itself would have imploded.
you were given a Roomette in the Viewliner 1 car with the Toilet in the room. I insist on the NEWER Viewliner 2 cars with the dark Pink upholstery and No Toilet in the room.
This service is stated to be "temporary," but it seems so much more useful than before, they should leave it this way.
Maybe Amtrak will reintroduce this train if its very successful... Otherwise once the East River tunnels repairs are completed the Silver Star will return.... Amtrak most successful long distance trains are the Silver trains running to Florida along the east coast...
I think the purpose was not to free up cars, but lower the burden on Penn station in NYC because of infrastructure projects. By cutting the portion of the Silver Metror (?) between NYC and DC, that achieved some of that goal and it was easy for them to combine the DC Florida section with the capital limited
Mate, a few subtitles on the roo tour, so we know what Class of cabin we were looking at would have been appreciated.
Great trip and good to see rail travel can be so popular in the US. Thanks for the great job too, Justin.
@tranmere292 this is not the train to highlight rail service in the US lol, there are many better routes and lines
I use to live there. Never in my wildest dream I thought I see a direct train from hamlet to Chicago. I rode the sliver star quite frequently to nyc as a kid and rode it to Jacksonville a couple of times.
Reminds me of the City of Miami, another passenger train ran by the Illinois Central railroad that ran from Chicago to Miami, and vice versa. However, I dont think they ran East to West as the new Floridian does now 😆
I'm taking a short train 🚆 ride to Portland and flying home. Hopefully I'll be able to make a long distance train trip.
I remember the old days of the Illinois Central Panama Limited from Chicago to Florida.
Please be aware that the area outside the fence of the Miami train station is dangerous. The station itself is crappy but the Amtrak workers are nice and helpful.
...Amtrak and Brightline are arguing about the length of the station platform at the new downtown station to accommodate peak season train length; the 36th st Miami station has a limited life left.
Here are the reasons for this new Floridian service:
1). To allocate the Superliners to their Western trains.
2). is to Reduce the amount train traffic going in and out of New York so the tunnels leading to Penn Station can be repaired, which have been damaged by Hurricane Sandy some years ago and until now, haven't been repaired properly if at all.
So just a quick correction on your text @ 2:18 the Silver Star does take a more inland route, but it's via Raleigh, NC not Charlotte...
You are lucky! In the UK there is no way that showers etcetera would be clean and working properly after being left at the mercy of the general public for two days!
You must have unheard of things like adequate numbers of cleaning and maintenance staff and effective servicing facilities 😇
Atleast UK is better connected. You can take a train everywhere in that country. America is pathetically underdeveloped.
@@thebabbler8867 Agreed, compared to China and mainland Europe the US is at present lacking in passenger railways. However they do have a huge and well-used freight system.
The UK, although only a small island, is very poorly served by an outdated and chaotic rail network. Only around 7% of all freight is carried by rail. There are parts of the South of England that have expensive but otherwise not unreasonable passenger rail services, though even there trains are often cancelled. Elsewhere, many relatively large towns have no rail connection and where there are stations they are often poorly served by slow, infrequent, unreliable, expensive, dirty and ancient or poorly-built trains that are nonetheless often overcrowded at peak times.
@thebabbler8867 the uk is literally the size of a small US state lol, if you compared rails in the UK with new york, new york would win. Comparing tiny UK with huge US doesnt make sense
@conradharcourt8263 people in the UK wouldn't need to use the bathroom to brush their teeth no offense 😆
@ Not that chestnut: nowadays many UK celebs have their teeth polished and the dental health of the average American is probably worse than in the UK.
Have you ever been here?😇
Super video , like, my friend .
Tampa look great say hi to miles
I think I saw the last capitol limited due to me seeing a capitol limited in Rockville’s station however I may be wing as this was last Friday
~dialogue~
Miles🤝Alan Fisher
Adding dialogue to a Simply Railway video
Great Video! Also you should checkout Colebrookdale Railroad in Boyertown PA
I rode the last Floridian, (only Lafayette-Chicago) and had taken that train quite a few times in the 70's. That route is long gone in southern Indiana, and the existing route that is used by the Cardinal has been downgraded by CSX from 79 mph track to 59 mph. A trip that used to take 2.5 hrs LAF-CHI now takes closer to 4 hours. I will be very surprised if Amtrak survives much longer after the recent election, so ride it while you can.
2:00 in and not only do we have dialog, we got @Miles In Transit
This is gonna be an epic video…
I seem to remember taking the train with my parents from Chicago to Florida in the 60s and it was just an overnight trip. This was pre-Amtrak. So why can’t this be again?
6:08 I know that some people like the convenience of a certain amenity in the Viewliner I roomettes, but I’m with Lonestar Trip Reports. I would find the idea of sleeping next to a toilet disgusting.
So use the upper bed.
Most of the old sleeper cars built before Amtrak had that. Thats why they're covered. The Slumbercoaches had that same set up. It wasn't an issue.
If I remember correctly this was the name of an older Amtrak train that they stopped. And I believe this will act like a replacement for the Silver Star until it returns in a few years. If that is the case, I hope that this service can stay.
How many passengers boarded the train between Miami and DC are going west on the the old Capitol Limited route?
Your guess is as good as mine... Amtrak train routes are LINEAR, passenger embark and disembark along the route... Amtrak is not flying non stop point to point...
What an awesome journey. What is your favourite sleeper service?
Very nicely done - thank you for such a good and interesting video.
God Bless!
Great trip, thanks Justin. I'm a little intrigued as to why Amtrak don't "top'n'tail" the locmotives (ie: one at each end of the train). That would eliminate the need to use the 'y' junction in Tampa as the crew would just have to walk the length of the train to complete the reversal. Equaly, the loco crew could be changed by having the out-bound crew waiting at the DC end of the platform and the inbound crew disembarking at the 'stops' end. That's just my take on the operation. No doubt Amtrak have their reasons for doing things the way they do. Thankd, Thibault for the editing.
locos are precious on amtrak, cant just put an extra one without causing issues for other trains
@@lalakerspro If there are 2 locos assigned to a train, surely it's a practical idea to put one at the leading end and the other at the trailing end with no need for additional locos (3 or more)? it's common practice here in the UK.
When more ALC-42’s go online maybe. And the freed ACS-64’s (because no more Silver Star to NYC) have actually been slowly put on the Northeast Regional for a push-pull service. Also also the American equivalent of the Railjet, Amtrak’s future Airo sets, are coming some time in the future both electric and diesel versions and I think once those slowly start coming out we’ll begin to see more long distance trains set up push-pull style as more and more engines get freed up by Airos replacing them
A Chicago-Terre Haute- Vincennes-Evansville-Nashville, Chattanooga-Atlanta-Waycross, Jacksonville-Miami route could be done in about 36 hours (from evening, after business hours, to before business hours the second morning) instead of 46 hours. That would be two nights in a sleeping car and three to five meala in the dining or dinette car, well-rested, showered and ready for business in either Miami or Chicago.
I would probably have kept the Silver Star and made the Floridian take the Silver Meteor’s old route since the Palmetto also follows that and provides service from New York.