Go West. Go South.

Caltrain Commences EMU service on Bay Peninsula. Amtrak to Combine Chicago – DC, DC-Florida Runs

The Silver Star approaching Delray Beach, FL, in July 2014. Amtrak is combining the train with the Capitol Limited to offer through service from Chicago to Miami and calling the train the Floridian.

“Hello! Yeah, it’s been a while.” With a little help from England Dan and John Ford Coley I resume writing Ellis on the Rails.

To be truthful, other than a few trips into the Big Apple I haven’t spent much time on the rails of late. Since my mother passed away in April my mind has been focused elsewhere: attending services twice daily to recite the Mourner’s Kaddish; unwinding Mom’s estate; caring for her dog; keeping up with my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson in Texas, and working to put Kamala Harris in the Oval Office.

Enough about me. We’re here to talk about trains.

Two recent events piqued my interest. First, this past weekend Caltrain commenced electrified regional rail service between San Francisco and San Jose. This is the first heavy rail commuter line west of Philadelphia to convert from diesel to electric multiple unit trains in my lifetime. Now shiny new self-propelled trainsets built by Stadler are rolling up and down the San Francisco Bay Peninsula every 30 minutes with service every 15 – 20 minutes during rush hour.

The LIRR extended its third rail from Mineola to Huntington while I was still in high school and from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma 17 years later.

As someone who commuted from Nassau County to Manhattan on the Long Island Rail Road for more than 30 years I am a true believer in electrified service. The trains run cleaner, faster, and quieter than diesels and can operate on shorter headways.

Electrify a route and watch ridership climb. This happened when the LIRR electrified its line to Ronkonkoma in the 1980s. It went from a sleepy branch line to one of the railroad’s busiest routes. It will be interesting to see if the same occurs on Caltrain.

Before Caltrain electrified only six US commuter lines had extensive electrified networks, and few have added to them during my 70 years. The LIRR extended its third rail from Mineola to Huntington while I was still in high school (1970) and from Hicksville to Ronkonkoma 17 years later. It also opened an electrified branch to Midtown Manhattan’s East Side in 2023. Its MTA sister, Metro North, electrified its Harlem line between North White Plains and Southeast in 1984.

NJ Transit runs electric-powered trains from New York Penn Station to Trenton, Long Branch, and Montclair, and from Hoboken to Gladstone. Most of these trains are hauled by electric or bimodal (diesel and electric) locomotives. The remaining EMUs are on borrowed time. Although it upgraded some of its power systems, the only extension of electrification was from South Amboy to Long Branch on the North Jersey Coast Line in the 1980s

All SEPTA regional rail lines are electrified. Service on diesel routes out of Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal was discontinued in the early 1980s. The carrier operates both EMU and locomotive-hauled trains, including Silverliner V cars that entered service around 2010. While both Boston’s MBTA and Maryland’s MARC Rail run over parts of the Northeast Corridor neither draws power for its trains from the overhead catenary.

The last OG operator of electrified EMU trains is Chicago’s METRA, which uses them only on former Illinois Central lines. It shares its mainline and Millenium Station on the Loop with NICTD’s South Shore line, which runs under the wires to South Bend, IN. That 90-mile run is the longest electrified commuter route in the United States.

IMHO, regional rail lines in the Dallas Fort-Worth Metroplex, South Florida, Southern California, and Seattle are good candidates for future electrification. However, I don’t expect it to happen in the near future.

What will happen presently, i.e. in November, however, will be the combining of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited and Silver Star into a through train from Chicago to Miami to be called the Floridian. The move is less market-driven and more to address operational issues.

Putting single-level rolling stock on the Floridian will free up bi-level Superliner cars for use on western long-distance runs. Also, Amtrak says it needs to reduce the number of trains running through the East River tunnels while they are being repaired.

Restoring passenger service between the Midwest and Florida has been on Amtrak supporters’ wish lists since the original Floridian was discontinued in 1979. That train followed a more direct route via Louisville, KY, Nashville, TN, and Birmingham, AL.

The new Floridian route is approximately 500 miles longer than the original. The trip will consume 47 hours end-to-end, when it is on time.

I seriously doubt it will generate much new end-to-end traffic. Anyone wanting to go from Chicago to Miami by train now can readily change at Washington to the Silver Star or Silver Meteor. I see more potential for travel between intermediate points, e.g. Pittsburgh, PA, to Richmond, VA, Cleveland, OH, to Columbia, SC.

However, it is unlikely this incremental traffic will offset revenue lost from travelers bound for or coming from New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. While most of those travelers can take the Silver Meteor, fares for that train will likely rise due to more fannies trying to fit into the same number of seats (and private rooms).

I’d be less bothered if Amtrak attached through Florida cars to one of its plentiful New York – Washington runs. Switching one or two coaches and a sleeping car onto the rear of the Floridian at Union Station would be less stressful for passengers.

While both the Caltrain and Floridian stories are interesting they highlight the growing chasm between the current state of passenger railroading in the United States and what constitutes state of the art globally. European and Asian nations run circles around us with respect to infrastructure and passenger rail development and service while we keep falling behind. We can do better. We have to because our roadways and runways can’t handle the load. We need – and they need – railways, too.