National Limited (Amtrak)

National Limited (Amtrak)
National Limited
Effingham Amtrak 1979.jpg
The National Limited at Effingham, Illinois in 1979.
Overview
Service type Inter-city rail
Status Discontinued
Locale Eastern United States
First service May 1, 1971
Last service October 1, 1979
Current operator(s) N/A
Former operator(s) Amtrak
Route
Start New York City, New York
End Kansas City, Missouri
Distance travelled 1,322 miles (2,128 km)
Service frequency Daily
Train number(s) 30/31
On-board services
Class(es)
  • First class (sleepers)
  • Reserved coach
Sleeping arrangements
  • Bedrooms
  • Roomettes
Catering facilities
Observation facilities Dome car
Technical
Rolling stock Heritage fleet
Gauge 4 ft 8 12 in (1,435 mm)

History

In 1970, the Department of Transportation, in its designation of endpoints for the Amtrak system, designated a train to run between New York, Washington, D.C., and St. Louis. [1] This was later amended to run all the way to Kansas City, with a connection to the Super Chief that would run between Chicago and Los Angeles. The route was being served, prior to Amtrak, by the Pennsylvania Railroad's Spirit of St. Louis. The Baltimore and Ohio also ran a train connecting Washington with St. Louis. It was their train, known as the National Limited, that would eventually have the name Amtrak would use.

With Amtrak's birth in May of 1971, they ran the Spirit of St. Louis, extending it to Kansas City. It soon lost the Spirit moniker, being replaced with the National Limited. The route had issues almost from the start. Although it should have been a financial success, going through a myriad of population centers, it frequently ran late (and sometimes not at all), owing to the deteriorated Penn Central trackage in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. This was its biggest weakness.

In 1979, the Carter administration, in its plan to cut Amtrak's budget, applied criteria on a cost/farebox ratio to every Amtrak train.[2] Any train not making enough money would be dropped from the system. Unfortunately, the problem of Penn Central's track in the Midwest had led to a substantial decline in ridership on the National Limited. Although there were some protests by local politicians, the National Limited made its last run October 1, 1979.

The state of Missouri, not wanting to see service lost between St. Louis and Kansas City, stepped in on that part of the National's route, and introduced the Kansas City Mule and St. Louis Mule to provide service there; these trains are now part of Amtrak's Missouri Service


References

  1. ^ Schafer, Mike. All Aboard Amtrak. Piscataway, NJ: Railpace Publishing, 1991
  2. ^ Schafer, Mike. All Aboard Amtrak. Piscataway, NJ: Railpace Publishing, 1991

External links


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