Now for another look at the long-distance Amtrak trains of my TL. Naturally, many are twists on ideas from
@TheMann, but I had several of my own up my sleeve.
American President: Washington DC - Baltimore - Harrisburg - Pittsburgh - Columbus - Indianapolis - St. Louis - Kansas City - Omaha - Denver - Salt Lake City - Reno - Sacramento - Oakland - San Jose - San Fransisco
FYI: It's San Fran
cisco. 🙂
On the idea, does this world still have the Western Maryland in service? If so, you may wish to ditch the Harrisburg stop and run on the Western Maryland main line to Connellsville and then up the former P&LE to Pittsburgh, to avoid the backups on the PRR Pennsylvania Main Line and take advantage of the incredible scenery along the Western Maryland's route. As I envision the American President being more of a train to use as an experience rather than just a way of getting from Point A to Point B (and I envisioned it being all-room, no coaches, with it being the absolute aristocracy of Amtrak's services) this may have a lot of benefit, and the B&O main over Sand Patch is probably a busy route in this world too.
Broadway Limited: New York - Philadelphia - Harrisburg - Pittsburgh - Canton - Lima - Ft. Wayne - Chicago
PRR main line, I'm guessing? If so, you may wish to have this one leave a good distance apart from the
Lake Shore Limited and give travelers heading to Chicago from New York (and vice versa) a choice of departure and arrival times.
California Zephyr: Chicago - Quad Cities - Des Moines - Omaha - Denver - Salt Lake City - Ogden - Reno -Sacramento - Oakland - San Jose - San Fransisco
Interesting that you'd re-route this one off of the Burlington Route's main between Chicago and Omaha, but if you want to serve the markets of the Quad Cities and Des Moines this makes sense. (Perhaps Amtrak ITTL has a solid agreement for trackage on this route that's better than the ex-CB&Q main? Also bear in mind that the Reno stop means using the SP main over Donner Pass and not the Western Pacific's route through the Feather River Canyon. Might be worth it, up to you.
Capitol Limited: Washington DC - Baltimore - Cumberland - Pittsburgh - Youngstown - Akron - Cleveland - Toledo - South Bend - Chicago
B&O main line over Sand Patch again, it looks like by the route, which makes sense considering this train was the B&O's flagship.
Carolinan: Chicago - Indianapolis - Louisville - Nashville - Chattanooga - Knoxville - Asheville - Charlotte - Winston-Salem - Greensboro - Durham - Raleigh - Greenville - Kitty Hawk
I'd take Chattanooga off of this one, because you're backtracking a considerable distance to do so - Nashville to Knoxville is pretty much a straight shot east and you'll have to go around or through the Cumberland Plateau either way. Chattanooga might be better served by having trains on a Atlanta-Chattanooga-Nashville route connect with the train at Nashville.
Cascades: Eugene - Salem - Portland - Olympia - Tacoma - Seattle - Bellingham - Vancouver
Surprised this isn't a high-speed route (maybe it will be in the future?), but if you're going this way I might suggest that you have some winter trains use the British Columbia Railway, bypass Vancouver Central Station in favor of a stop in a suburb and then climb the BCR to the ski resort of Whistler-Blackcomb. Make the trains fast enough, allow customs pre-clearance in Seattle or Tacoma or Portland and you might be able to make a lucrative business delivering people from the Pacific NW to weekends at Whistler.
City of Los Angeles: New York/Boston - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - South Bend - Chicago - St. Louis - Kansas City - Denver - Trinidad - Santa Fe - Albuquerque - Belen - Flagstaff - Phoenix - Yuma - Los Angeles
You're taking a UP-name train and putting it onto the Santa Fe, which I'd pass on. If you want to make this work, I'd use the name
El Capitan (Santa Fe's famed coach streamliner) instead for this route. Or, alternately, run this one on the Overland route and then down the UP to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
City of New Orleans: Chicago - St. Louis - Carbondale - Paducah - Fulton - Memphis - Jackson - Baton Rouge - New Orleans
You could also name this one the
Panama Limited - both are Illinois Central trains that ran the same route. (Or perhaps one starts from St. Louis and the other from Chicago.)
City of San Fransisco: New York - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - South Bend - Chicago - St. Louis - Kansas City - Denver - Salt Lake City - Ogden - Reno -Sacramento - Oakland - San Jose - San Fransisco
City of Seattle: New York/Boston - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - South Bend - Chicago - St. Louis - Kansas City - Denver - Salt Lake City - Ogden - Pocatello - Boise - Spokane - Seattle
Interesting that both of these trains are running on the DRGW main instead of the Overland Route. It's the more scenic of the two for sure, and with the number of trains running this route the DRGW and Amtrak must have good agreements. Idea on that front - if you can, set up these so that they arrive as close together as possible in the morning going westbound, with the Chicago trains in the lead, the
American President behind that and then the New York trains, running as close together as possible so everyone gets to see the Rockies in daylight, and get across as much of them as you can before night falls. This means a very late stop at Salt Lake City and a sunrise in Nevada, but then another day driving though the Sierra Nevadas and an evening arrival in San Francisco, hopefully one that comes after the commuter rush down the Peninsula. Having the passenger trains all arrive and run together gets them out of the way of DRGW freight traffic, too.
Coast Daylight: San Diego - Oceanside - Los Angeles - San Luis Obispo - Salinas - San Jose - San Fransisco
Coast Starlight: San Diego - Oceanside - Los Angeles - San Luis Obispo - Salinas - San Jose - Oakland - Sacramento - Eugene - Portland - Olympia - Tacoma - Seattle - Vancouver
Not sure why you'd do both of these on the same route, as you'll surely want them both to run in daytime hours to get the most from the scenery, and avoid the backups caused by commuter trains in Los Angeles. I can only see this working if the Daylight is a morning train along the route and the Starlight runs along the coast in the evening, and uses the morning going through the Oregon Cascades, but this would mean a very early departure from Portland headed southbound and a very late departure from Vancouver and Seattle, which is not ideal.
Colonial: Bangor - Portland - Boston - Providence - New Haven - New York - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC - Richmond - Newport News- Norfolk
Am I guessing this is an evening run along the NEC, or an overnight train? You could make this an all-parlour train for the evenings, launching from both ends at about 530 pm and arriving at the other end about 11 pm, serving dinner and drinks along the way, or an overnight train that departs each end about midnight and arrives at the other about 630 am, with sleepers cut off and picked up at stations along the way to allow riders to get more sleep. I would do the former, but the latter would work too.
Internationalist (with VIA Rail): Twin Cities - Madison - Milwaukee - Chicago - Grand Rapids - Detroit - London - Kitchener - Toronto - Ottawa - Montreal - Quebec City - Moncton - Halifax
This route could make a lot of sense, but I'm not sure why you'd bother with the Twin Cities - Chicago section here. Better to make this a parlour train as far as Toronto, picking up sleepers along the way. Depart Chicago about 10 am, arrive Detroit about 230 pm, Toronto about 6 pm and Montreal about 930 pm (you could go faster out of Toronto but you'll be threading through a LOT of commuter trains there), gathering sleeper passengers along the way, then after the 1130 pm stop at Quebec City go overnight through New Brunswick, arriving at Halifax about 830 am. Going the other way is an evening departure from Halifax, early morning in Quebec City, mid-morning in Montreal, early afternoon in Toronto and early evening in Detroit, allowing arrival in Chicago in the mid-evening. The early arrival and late departure would allow Via Rail's
Ocean to operate as a second set of arrival and departure times from Halifax to Montreal.
In addition, the Grand Trunk (and CN and Via Rail) all called the Toronto-Chicago route the
International Limited, and I'd do the same here. Alternately, you could use the name
Cavalier, which was a sleeper car train from the CN and early Via era on this route.
Lake Shore Limited: New York - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - South Bend - Chicago
Water Level Route routing, by the look of it, and what I said above about the
Broadway Limited applies here too. Passengers will appreciate it if you can give plenty of different arrival and departure times.
Mount Rainier Limited: Denver - Salt Lake City - Boise - Spokane - Seattle - Bellingham - Vancouver
Good route, though I'm not sure adding Limited to the name after a mountain works here. Just
Mount Rainier or another descriptive name works better IMO, but its your call.
National Limited: Washington DC - Baltimore - Cumberland - Pittsburgh - Columbus - Cincinnati - Indianapolis - St. Louis - Kansas City
Whether this one works with the Spirit of St. Louis would depend on the timing and routes. It looks to me like these run on differing routes (ex-PRR for the Spirit of St. Louis and ex-B&O for the National Limited) which works fine for serving many intermediate stops, but you'll want to have differing departure times for the stretch west of Columbus. In addition, going south to Cincinnati from Columbus only to go back up to Indianapolis is a wide swing.
New England States: Boston - Springfield - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - South Bend - Chicago
Idea on this front: Have this depart just a bit earlier than the Lake Shore Limited, so that the Lake Shore Limited arrives in Albany just ahead of the New England States, and the two race together to Buffalo, then have the New England States run through Canada, using the Via Rail high-speed lines to serve Hamilton, London, Chatham and Detroit, then skip south to Toledo and back onto the Water Level Route. This puts Detroit on a cross-country route, allows passengers in southern Ontario (and conceivably Toronto too) to use the train to go to Chicago or New York and reduces congestion on the Water Level Route, whose HSRs will surely be very busy. This is IOTL what the NYC did in any case, and the task of adding international clearances to the stations in Canada isn't a difficult one.
Ohio State Limited: New York - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Columbus - Dayton - Cincinnati
Good idea, and I'd recommend this be an overnighter with a section departing from Boston, meeting up with the main train at Albany. Late-evening departure from Boston and New York, late-night stop at Albany and very early morning at Buffalo, resulting in arrival at Cleveland about 730 am, Columbus about 10 am and Cincinnati about noon, with the same being true in the other direction, allowing the passengers to arrive in New York about 8 am and Boston about 9 am.
Palmetto: Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC - Richmond - Raleigh - Fayetteville - Myrtle Beach - Charleston - Savannah - Jacksonville - Orlando - Tampa
Both the Palmetto and Silver Star will want to leave the cities of the Northeast fairly early, so you'll probably want to run them fairly close together as far as Richmond. The differing routes south of there is good (more intermediate stops serviced), but you may wish to make the northbound trains timed to run onto the NEC fairly close together too. As these routes are overwhelmingly used by vacationers, you'll want the arrivals in Florida to be as early as possible and the departures to be late, so the trains will run through the south mostly at night - but you can use the
Southern Crescent (and perhaps another ex-SCL train, revive the
Champion perhaps?) as daytime runs along these routes to get daytime passengers in the South, racing up the NEC at night and allowing early-morning arrivals at New York and Boston.
Pan-American: Detroit - Toledo - Columbus - Cincinnati - Louisville - Nashville - Birmingham - Jackson - New Orleans - Houston - San Antonio
This one is a bit tricky unless you make the business between these centers better, as the OTL L&N train was never a particularly successful one. Detroit-Texas services here might well be supported by the states involved to help make them profitable, and you'd be wise to really stock up on amenities on this one to make it a ride to remember for its passengers and grow its reputation.
Performer: New York - Albany - Buffalo - Cleveland - Toledo - Detroit
Match this one with the Washington-Detroit Red Arrow, running a Washington - Baltimore - Harrisburg - Pittsburgh - Columbus - Toledo - Detroit route, them joining the Internationalist train from above as your Detroit services set. You may wish to consider a train from Detroit to Florida as well, on the same route as the
Floridian south of Louisville.
Pioneer: Chicago - Rockford - Cedar Rapids - Omaha - Cheyenne - Denver - Salt Lake City - Boise - Pocatello - Portland - Tacoma - Seattle
A good route, and the City of Seattle would be wise to use the Portland-Tacoma-Seattle line instead of going via Spokane, particularly when Spokane is served by the
Empire Builder,
Mount Rainier and
Western Star.
Rocky Mountaineer: New Orleans - Houston - Ft. Worth - Amarillo - Pueblo - Denver - Salt Lake City - Pocatello - Boise - Spokane - Cranbrook - Lethbridge - Calgary
I'm not sure I'd take this one all the way to Houston and New Orleans, seems a waste of time. Dallas would be a good place to start for the HSR connection, though if possible I'd this train hook up with the
Super Chief at La Junta (which if you follow the ATSF schedule gets there about 915 am),
American President at Denver (scheduled to arrive about 1030 am) and the
Empire Builder at Spokane, and run the train from Calgary over the Rockies on the Canadian Pacific's main line to Vancouver. The whole train would be like the OTL train, made for sightseeing, tourists, and people riding a train in luxury to have a good time. To make sure of this, this train would be all-room, with lots of lounge and open-roof cars, top-drawer food service as on-board services the equal of the
American President.
Silver Star: Boston - New York - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC - Richmond - Raleigh - Durham - Greensboro - Winston-Salem - Charlotte - Columbia - Savannah - Jacksonville - Orlando - Miami
See above about this train's relationship with its twin on the route.
Southern Crescent: New York - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC - Lynchburg - Greensboro - Winston-Salem - Charlotte - Spartanburg - Atlanta - Birmingham - Jackson - New Orleans - Houston - San Antonio
With HSRs undoubtedly racing around Texas I'm not sure the San Antonio extension of this route makes any sense, but the Houston run does, particularly once the Southern cities have enough economic clout that a train to the big, rich city of Houston makes sense. Good idea here: Make sure passengers (and perhaps cars) can come off of the Sunset Limited right onto the Southern Crescent at either Houston or New Orleans, giving a rider a Los Angeles-Houston-New York through ride.
Sunset Limited: Miami - Orlando - Jacksonville - Tallahassee - Pensacola - Mobile - New Orleans - Houston - San Antonio - Del Rio - El Paso - Deming - Tucson - Phoenix - Yuma - Palm Springs - San Bernardino - Los Angeles
I'm guessing this is the OTL route pre-Hurricane Katrina. It makes a lot of sense, particularly if you can grow the business along the coast.
Tennesseean: Washington DC - Richmond - Roanoke - Bristol - Knoxville - Chattanooga - Huntsville - Memphis - Little Rock - Texarkana - Longview - Dallas/Ft. Worth - Austin - San Antonio
This is an interesting one and has potential if you can make it into a new Washington-to-Texas corridor, though I'm not entirely sure the Richmond-Knoxville section is going to be a viable route a lot of the time and the routes aren't the easiest. Could be a good one, and I'd advise making this and the Carolinan connect with each other at Knoxville.
Texas Eagle: Chicago - St. Louis - Poplar Bluff - Memphis - Little Rock - Texarkana - Longview - Dallas/Ft. Worth - Austin - San Antonio
Another good setup, but with the relatively small population (and lower-than-average income) along the route, you'd be well advised to make this as much a Chicago/St. Louis to Texas service as possible and operate it accordingly, with relatively few stops between Little Rock, Memphis and St. Louis.
Twin Capitols (with VIA Rail): Ottowa - Montreal - Burlington - Albany - New York - Philadelphia - Baltimore - Washington DC
FYI: It's Ott
awa. 🙂
This route would also work best as a fast-paced parlour train. If you can make a direct connection between Penn Station and Grand Central Station this would work best, with mid-morning departure from Washington and Ottawa, arriving in the other capital about ten hours later, using the NEC to New York, the Empire Corridor to Albany, running along the former D&H, skipping Burlington (but operating a ferry across Lake Champlain and having direct service to New York from there on Vermonter regional services) but stopping at Schenectady, Satatoga Springs and Plattsburgh. Once at Montreal the train takes the Via HSR route from Montreal to Ottawa.
Windy City: Chicago - St. Louis - Kansas City - Denver - Salt Lake City - Reno - Oakland - San Jose - San Fransisco
Am I to guess that this train is the more-prosaic brother of the California Zephyr? If so, it may make sense to make the Zephyr part of Amtrak's flagship fleet and have the Windy City be a less-expensive, coach-carrying train.