I was going through a old Amtrak timetable/travel planner booklet from 2003 (I think) and it mentioned a train that would split off the NYC-New Orleans Crescent and go to Dallas, TX. The train was to slit at Meridian, Miss. Does anyone have a update or was this train scrapped along with the skyline connection, las vegas service, service to monterry Mexico, service to des moins, iawa and the Fla east coast route???
Under current conditions any expansion of Amtrak’s long distance routes is highly unlikely. There was talk of splitting the Crescent at Meridian, MS with one section going to Dallas, but that plan has evidently died. Running passenger service down Florida’s East Coast was also considered, but I don’t know what came of that. I doubt if there were any recent plans to run Amtrak trains to Monterrey, Mexico since there is no more passenger service between Laredo, and Mexico City
No how, no way, not under current conditions. Amtrak is in “scrape by” mode, not expansion mode…
A few years ago Amtrak management was focused on the express business (the Postal Service for example) and that was the reason for the Meridian-Dallas train, as well as the short lived Kentucky Cardinal. Now Amtrak management is just tring to keep what they have. The Janesville, Wisconsin train was another short lived train.
Amtrak is specifically prohibited by current law from adding any new routes, unless such routes can be shown to be profitable. Fat Chance!
Jay
That Florida East Coast route was going to be run by the state of Florida.