I was thinking about the old “Limited” service trains the other day and it got me to thinking. Would an actual Limited train work in today’s American rail environment outside the North East Corridor?
Correct me if I’m off here, but for those who don’t know, from what I’ve read (I’m still a noob and learning) trains with the title of “Limited” were just that, an Express train of sorts, making “Limited” stops where as a train of the same route that was not carrying title of “Limited” might make every stop along the way from Podunkville to Metropolis. From having worked in the Airline industry for so long, it’s quite easy to see this –in a variation- was the original “Hub-and-Spoke” system that the airlines use today. In addition it seems that most Limited service trains were basically all first class, and I’m assuming much more expensive in ticket price.
With the huge size of our amazing country, traveling by train long distances doesn’t always make the best use of time. Some train rides can be over 18 hours end to end. I thought of trains like the Capitol Limited (remember, just a name today), the Crescent and maybe some of the Silver Service to Florida as possible candidates for something like this. Limted service train obviously would prob cut the travel time down by quite a bit. I would think that people – especially business people – would be willing to pay a higher premium if it meant getting between two cities the same day and not having to deal with the hassles of the airports, security, weather delays and getting to and from said airports.
Obviously it a hypothetical topic, and there is currently no budget as of late for such a plan to take place within Amtrak. But the future is obviously unknown, so are there any current routes in the US (barring the NEC) where this might again work? If Amtrak had the infrastructure of rolling stock to support this would it be a feasible idea that could again get implemented?
[edited for mispelling 18:21 EST]
A litle terminology note here. You are so very right that the CONCEPT of limited service was very alive and very well, very different from today.
But I would caution against a too literal, too consistently serious application of the WORD "Limited" in the title of specific trains.
Remember, each railroad was it's own boss unlike today where Amtrak is a national organization. Any railroad could call anything anything. It is not as if there was an actual textbook definition which would allow some trains to be called limited and not others. Remember, I am just talking about terminology here, not concepts.
Probably any train called "limited" really was limited, as a concept, at first. But they did not always remain up to date. Sometimes newer trains would come along that were better and faster but did not have limited in their names. If you would examine a time table from the 50's and look at every train that still had limited in its title, well some would be pretty swank and many others not.
Much the same could be said about the word "express". It takes no imagination to know what that means, but again the railroads did not apply the term with rigid uniformity. Then, too, as above some trains might have been true expresses when inaugurated but did not stay that way, but kept the name.
Sometimes one hears that all the trains had to terminate at a Terminal station.Well,probably so, originally but it certainly did not remain consistent afterwards.
It is safe to say that limited and express, as terms (not the concept), pretty much lost their meaning.
Another word indicative of superior service that fared somewhat better is the word "streamliner". This meant a train built out of lightweight materials (often but not always stainless steel). Such trains normally had faster schedules, fewer stops, more amenities,etc, pretty well summing up what the words limited and express had meant to convey.Streamlining, and also diesel power, began in the late 30's, was interrupted by the war and resumed in the 40's in a big way.
Technically the trains today are streamliners, too, since they are lightweight. But somehow the term has fallen into significant disuse for today's railroads, confining it to the so-called "streamliner era".The word streamliner used to "mean something", just as the word Jet used to mean something for the airlines wheras today almost anything is a jet, no big deal any more.Yes I know there is a physical difference which makes a plane a jet or not, so as with streamliners, but in every day thought each word was a code word for superior service. Sometimes the old jets had fancier menus, things like that.
For a train to be limited-- like all sleepers or almost no stops-- there has to be a huge back drop of other trains to fall back on, a point many have already made in many ways. My point is nothing different , just a terminology issue.
It will surprise some to know that the original streamlined version of the Cresent, 1949 until the late 50's was all sleeper from NY to ATL, adding coaches from ATL toNOL...This because there were several other trains from NY to ATL to absorb this, not so many from ATL to NOL.The very original heavyweight Crescent Limited from 1928 to 1949 had no coaches north of ATL either. And note that "limited" was dropped from it's name when it became a glistering stainless steel streamliner.Pretty good sign that the term "limited" was falling upon hard tiimes.
