A The Sunset Limited became the country’s first transcontinental train when Amtrak expanded the former Southern Pacific Los Angeles-New Orleans tri-weekly train to Miami in April 1993. The Sunset was cut back to the Orlando, Fla., area in 1996, however, because freight delays on Union Pacific and CSX Transportation hammered the train’s schedule. It then stopped running east of New Orleans following extensive damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005. Although CSX immediately rebuilt its tracks and towns restored most stations along the route within several years, Amtrak continues to show service between New Orleans and Jacksonville, Fla., as “suspended.”
Prior to Amtrak’s debut in 1971, competing railroads terminating at Chicago, St. Louis, and New Orleans provided so many options that there was no need for a train across the continent. However, the lines did jointly establish transcontinental Pullman sleeping car routes through these cities. (The last such car was a New York-Los Angeles sleeper on the Crescent and Sunset through New Orleans, operated by Amtrak until 1985.) At Chicago, here trains to and from both coasts often arrived and departed from different stations, cross-country travelers were permitted to leave everything in their rooms while the cars were switched; the passengers transferred on a shuttle bus. – Bob Johnston
