Just wanted to share this photograph I took of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited #29 departing from the Queen City, Cumberland, Maryland for the last time on November 9th, 2024.
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Has the Capitol Ltd. been discontinued?
The superliner equipment has been displaced into other services since Amtrak can’t or won’t repair the damaged superliner equipment from prior incidents.
The train has been renamed ‘The Floridian’ and operates between Chicago & Miami through DC. South of the DC The Floridian replaces the Silver Star.
The Schedule between Chicago & DC approximates that of the Capitol. Didn’t pay any attention to how the schedul South of DC approximates the Star.
I have no idea if this is permanent or temporary.
That’s weird. Thanks for the update.
I would this becomes another train with a very long distance between end points. Consequently it has the potential for running far behind schedule.
Definitely a candidate for compounding delays -
At least when I was working - Amtrak schedules were the prime reasons for scheduling freight operations around the WINDOWS Amtrak operations create on the various subdivisions and dispatching districts. When both freight and passenger are running within their ‘normal windows’ both will tend to be near On Time. However, when high priority freight or Amtrak are seriously out of the scheduled window - delays to the entire network result,
Breaking scheduled windows don’t do anyone any good.
(Note Schedule Windows don’t mean exact schedule on time - nominally within an hour of the schedule time can be considered ‘in the window’.)
The objective for the consolidation of the Capitol Limited and the Silver Star, I believe, is to eliminate the Star north of Washington and thereby reduce the number of trains going to or from New York City to facilitate the tunnel maintenance and/or construction under the North River.
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There is an easy fix for this… Congress authorizes Amtrak to carry some US Mail onboard so by law, CSX/NS/BNSF/UP have to assign “Priority” right of way to these passenger trains ergo Amtrak is on time…
Considering the current climate - both Amtrak and USPS are more likely to be defunded.
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I took that exact same shot in 2015 when we took the Limited from DC, connecting with the Empire Builder in Chicago with a roomette on each.
It was an interesting run on CSX, not in a good way as the car rocked a great deal on that track. Thankfully we didnt ride the superliner car behind us, which appeared to have a problem with the lead truck ‘hunting’ at speed.
It is my understanding that the arrangement is intended to be temporary, for just the reason given in a prior post (maintenance in the New York City area). It’s an interesting idea to give Chicago its own dedicated Florida train again, something that has not had lasting success whenever Amtrak seems to have tried it
**Amazed that Amtrak didn’t want to do it via Seattle, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Jacksonville. Nothing like circuitous routing. **
The Real thing
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A greatest square-end, streamlined obs!