New, temporary Amtrak service between Chicago and Florida will soon begin running as the rail agency gears up for major construction along its busy Northeast Corridor.
The new Floridian trains will run daily from Chicago to Miami, stopping along the way in Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C. Service begins Nov. 10.
The route marks a combination of two existing routes — the Capitol Limited between Chicago and Washington, and the Silver Star between Miami and New York — as Amtrak plans to rehabilitate an aging tunnel under the East River in New York. The construction will force one tube of the tunnel to close at a time and Amtrak needed to limit the number of trains that are fueled, cleaned and serviced in New York City, so the agency sought options elsewhere, spokesman Marc Magliari said.
Amtrak doesn’t have an end date for the new Chicago route, but Magliari said it would likely last at least until construction on the East River tunnel ends.
“This provides a service that has been long sought in the Midwest,” Magliari said.
The train trip between Chicago and Miami takes about two days, online schedules show. A coach-class ticket cost $113 on the Amtrak website Tuesday, while private-room prices began at $734. Magliari said the new service would include Amtrak’s newest model of sleeping cars.
Amtrak once operated Floridian trains between Chicago and Miami, but the service ended in 1979 as track conditions deteriorated and made the train so unreliable that it drove away passengers, Magliari said. During a federal review of Amtrak routes’ performance, the service was deemed not to be a high-performing route.
But the similarities between the original Floridian route and the new route are few. The new train will also begin in Chicago and serve the same Florida stations, but it will make different stops between the two destinations. The original Floridian passed through Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, while included along the new route are Toledo, Cleveland and Pittsburgh, which never had direct Amtrak service to Florida, Magliari said.
“Our members have had a long-standing dream of restoring a one-seat ride from the Midwest to Florida, and we’re thrilled that a new generation of American passengers will be able to experience this service for themselves,” said Jim Mathews, president and CEO of the Rail Passengers Association, in a statement provided by Amtrak. “This move will free up badly needed equipment while taking pressure off Northeast Corridor infrastructure during the renovation of the ERT Project.”
