May 1st, 1971 – The Day U.S. Passenger Rail Changed
50 years ago, today most intercity passenger rail services in the United States became the responsibility of Amtrak, the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.
The railroads invested heavily in new streamlined passenger cars with the latest features in the years right after World War II, and for a few years, they did well. However, as the 1950s progressed, ridership declined due to several factors. The interstate highway system provided increased individual mobility. New airports provided another alternative, and at the close of the decade, the jet airliner arrived, providing more speed and comfort. New hotel chains made travel for business and pleasure much easier and pleasant, car rental companies flourished. Rail ridership declines continued, depressing revenue. Then in the 1960s the U.S. postal service migrated much of its business to truck, air, and processed it through brand new non-rail served automated sorting centers using the new “Zip Code”. We sometimes forget that the main revenue for many passenger trains was the “head-end” business much of which was mail carried in express baggage cars or sorted en route in U.S. Railway Post Office cars by postal employees. Many trains met their end months after losing their mail contracts.
Without Federal intervention, most intercity passenger service would have ceased by the early 1970s.
On May 1st, 1971, our Seaboard Coast Line was one of 20 railroads that turned over their passenger operations to Amtrak. On April 30th, 1971 about half of the trains which departed that day were doing so for the last time, as the new Amtrak was to operate a basic National Network and some regional services; the Federal Department of Transportation determining which routes would end and which would stay.
Seaboard Coast Line passenger service fared well, as ridership to and from Florida had held up. Amtrak would continue to run the flagship streamliners: Silver Meteor, Silver Star, Champion, South Wind, and in December 1971 would launch their only edition of the seasonal Florida Special. A new upstart, Auto-Train Corporation, would commence their signature auto-passenger service that December as well over the Seaboard Coast Line and the Richmond Fredericksburg and Potomac. The secondary trains of SCL like the Palmland, Gulf Coast Special, Everglades, and Gulf Wind failed to make the cut, as did some locals carrying through sleepers and coaches to places like Naples and Venice. The DOT saw the need for only one Chicago to Florida train, so the City of Miami perished in favor of the South Wind route, which was made a daily train and once again running through to Chicago from Louisville; it would later be renamed Floridian.
By my count, 276 SCL/Hamburg owned passenger cars were acquired by Amtrak by 1972, accounting for 23% of Amtrak’s initial fleet, and second only to the 441 cars Amtrak acquired from Santa Fe. Now, that count excludes the 410 cars Amtrak acquired from Penn Central, the formal purchase of which was delayed several years because of the Penn Central bankruptcy. Still, SCL’s contribution to Amtrak’s original fleet is impressive!
Much has changed in 50 years, but Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and Auto Train still run on the “A” and “S” lines, plus the New York to Savannah Palmetto, added in the 1970s. Other “new” regional trains ply the “A” line between Richmond, VA, and Selma, NC.
As we mark this anniversary, we share with you a photo taken in the winter of 1972 by our long-time member and my friend Bill McCoy. Bill worked many years for Seaboard Coast Line, Seaboard System, and CSX Transportation, and was in sales in Miami in the early 1970s. Bill recently gave us many fascinating photos we may be posting in the near future.
So, to mark Amtrak’s 50th Anniversary, we are pleased to share with all the now legendary Amtrak “Day 1” locomotive, E8A number 4316 visiting Hialeah Yard in Florida sometime between December 1971 and April 1972. Normally assigned to Harrisburg, PA, this loco, still owned by Penn Central, made at least one visit to Hialeah on the Silver Star. The B&O locomotive is E8A 1446. 4316 would become Amtrak 322 and 1446 Amtrak 202 (and based in Hialeah). The baggage dormitory is a Southern Pacific car built by Budd for the Sunset Limited, several of these were assigned to the Silver Star that winter before heading back west for a couple of years.
Let us hope Amtrak continues another 50 years and improves!
Happy 50th Amtrak!
Amtrak/Penn Central 4316 and B&O 1446 layover in SCL’s Hialeah Yard, FL on the south end of the “SX” line off of the Silver Star – Winter 1972, Bill McCoy
Amtrak today on the SCL’s “A” line, Train 52 – Auto Train – April 6, 2018 Folkston, GA, W. Jim Langston
W. Jim Langston
President ACL & SAL HS