WASHINGTON — Amtrak is temporarily combining the Capitol Limited and Silver Star trains to create the new Floridian. Amtrak says the change is due to the upcoming East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project in New York. During this project, one tunnel tube will be closed at a time, minimizing service impacts, maximizing construction access and modernizing the tunnel infrastructure to serve customers for another 100 years. The single-level train makes its inaugural trip on Nov. 10.
Trains News Wire first reported on the possibility of a combined service in July 2024.
“The Floridian offers customers an exceptional and sustainable journey to great destinations between Chicago and Miami, providing the amenities and delicious food our guests enjoy when traveling with us,” Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Eliot Hamlisch says.
The new Floridian service will carry train Nos. 40 and 41. It will offer Traditional Dining service in the Dining Car, a complimentary amenity for customers traveling in First Class private rooms.
In the 1970s, Amtrak Floridian service provided direct service between Florida and the Midwest for almost a decade. The train was first known as the South Wind, a name inherited from predecessors Pennsylvania Railroad, Louisville & Nashville, and Seaboard Coast Line. With the issuance of Amtrak’s first in-house timetable on Nov. 14, 1971, the name was changed to Floridian. The train provided the only Amtrak service to such cities as Louisville, Ky.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Montgomery, Ala., in its time. At the Florida end, the train saw the operation of two sections, one to Tampa/St. Petersburg and the other to Miami. To access St. Petersburg, the train had to navigate street trackage at Clearwater. At various times in the 1970s, Amtrak Floridian service operated combined with the Silver Star south of Jacksonville. The train was discontinued in October 1979.
In response to Trains News Wire inquiries about specific operating details, Amtrak spokeswoman Kimberly Woods says the new Floridian will be assigned four Amfleet II coaches and continue with only two Viewliner sleeping cars, as the New York-Miami Silver Star now has. This will result in a significant decrease in bedroom capacity on the Chicago-Washington, D.C. portion of the route — from 10 to 4 bedrooms on each train, since each of the two Superliners that currently operate on the Capitol Limited has 5 bedrooms and each Viewliner has 2. Both Superliners and Viewliners have one accessible bedroom, but Viewliners do not have a family bedroom that sleeps two adults plus two small children.
Roomette revenue capacity will also be reduced slightly from the 13 salable rooms in a Superliner to 11 (Viewliner II) or 12 (Viewliner I). The dining car, café, and coach attendant onboard service crew also must be accommodated with the fewer number of roomettes.
A big plus is that traditional dining will expand once again to the Chicago-Washington route after being jettisoned for flex meals in 2018. Woods says that for an additional fee (as is the case on western long-distance trains), “a limited number of dining car meals are also available for Coach Class customers.”
Passengers ticketed to and from Northeast Corridor points will have a guaranteed connection at Washington.
New train No. 41 will run eastbound on the Capitol Limited portion of the route and No. 40 westbound, bucking the “even eastbound-odd westbound” assignments of other Amtrak trains. The train numbers were last used on the New York-Philadelphia-Chicago Three Rivers, discontinued in 2005, and its predecessor, the Broadway Limited, dropped in 1995.
Updated Sept. 23 at 5 p.m. CDT with additional information from Amtrak.
