Floridian (train)

The ''Floridian'' was a train operated by Amtrak from 1971 to 1979 that ran from Chicago and–via two sections south of Jacksonville– Miami and St. Petersburg, Florida. 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

Pre-Amtrak

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.

Amtrak

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 C, which it shared with Amtrak's ''Panama Limited'' (the renamed '' City of New Orleans'' and not the original all-Pullman flagship) 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.

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 Jacksonville, with the St. Petersburg section serving Orlando and Tampa and the Miami section serving Winter Haven. These two legs crossed each other near Lakeland, Florida. The reconfigured train also added a stop in Nashville, which had long been served by the ''South Wind'' but had initially been left out of Amtrak for much of the spring and summer.

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. 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. In January 1977, the ''Floridian'' was cancelled for two weeks due to severe winter weather in Chicago. 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 mph. 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, Kentucky—Sanford, Florida ''Auto-Train'' service in the mid 1970's. 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 ''Floridians discontinuance.

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.

This DOT report also recommended the discontinuance of the Chicago—Oakland (San Francisco) '' San Francisco Zephyr''—which, as the ''California Zephyr'', has become one of Amtrak's most popular trains.

Proposed restoration

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. 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.

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''. The bill passed the Senate Commerce Committee with bipartisan support, and was later rolled into President Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was passed into law in November 2021. The report must be delivered to Congress within two years. The law also provides $2.4 billion in new funds to Amtrak's long-distance route network.

On October 28, 2022, the Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study was announced by the Federal Railroad Administration. 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. 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".

References

External links

*
Floridian Passenger Rail Service Reestablishment Act of 1993 (failed Congressional bill)1979 timetable

{{Former Amtrak routes

Former Amtrak routes
Railway services introduced in 1971
Railway services discontinued in 1979
Former long distance Amtrak routes
Proposed Amtrak routes