Is this the return of American Streamliners?: A Ramble About The FRA Long Distance Trains Proposal
Nearly 100 years ago, overnight sleeper trains, best epitomized by the legendary Streamliners, were true household names, the epitome of long distance transportation, and symbols of American pride, but today not so much. They're constantly delayed, slower than flying, and simply don't get service to a lot of places like they used too. However, there are plenty of people out there (including myself) who absolutely love the long distance trains that survive under Amtrak, and with the FRA's long distance service proposal released last month to compliment the Corridor ID project, they could well see a new rebirth. Here, I ramble yet again about new proposed Amtrak routes and my give you all my thoughts about them. Some are the return of old classics, and others are new and off the wall ideas, but all of these routes deserve a fair shake and I hope as many of them can come to fruition as possible, but let's see which are the most realistic and which are just pipe dreams...
The Routes in Question:
0:00 Intro
4:01 Return of the North Coast Hiawatha (Chicago - Seattle)
7:06 Return of the Pioneer (Denver - Seattle)
9:10 Return of the Desert Wind (Denver - LA)
12:46 Return of the Floridian (Chicago - Miami)
15:33 Return and Extension of the National Limited (NYC-DFW)
19:18 San Francisco - Dallas/Fort Worth
22:00 Phoenix - Minneapolis/St. Paul... wait, what?
26:45 Billings - El Paso
30:58 Denver - Minneapolis/St. Paul
34:17 Denver - Houston (with a bonus ramble about rolling stock)
43:45 San Antonio - Minneapolis/St. Paul
45:58 Dallas/Fort Worth - Atlanta
48:20 Dallas/Fort Worth - Miami
51:05 Houston - New York City
54:39 New Orleans - Detroit
57:20 Conclusion and what Amtrak should look into.
Background footage is my own works, used photos belong to their original photographers and artists.
For those interested in the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority, here's a link to their site. Give them some love. https://www.bigskyrail.org/