Lake Shore Limited

Lake Shore Limited
Lake Shore Limited train #49 entering Croton–Harmon in 2008.
Overview
Service type Inter-city rail
Status Operating
Locale Midwest and Northeast United States
Predecessor Lake Shore
First service October 1, 1975
Current operator(s) Amtrak
Ridership 373,331 (FY 2014)[1]
Route
Start Chicago, Illinois
Stops 20(Chicago–New York)
22(Chicago–Boston)
End New York City
Boston, Massachusetts
Distance travelled 959 miles (1,543 km) (Chicago–New York)
1,017 miles (1,637 km) (Chicago–Boston)
Average journey time 20 hours (Chicago–New York)
22 hours 40 minutes (Chicago–Boston)
Service frequency Daily
Train number(s) 48/448–49/449
On-board services
Class(es) Reserved Coach and First-class Sleeper
Seating arrangements Airline-style coach seating
Sleeping arrangements Viewliner Roomette (2 beds)
Viewliner Bedroom (2 beds)
Viewliner Bedroom Suite (4 beds)
Viewliner Accessible Bedroom (2 beds)
Catering facilities Dining car and on-board café
Baggage facilities Checked baggage available at selected stations
Technical
Rolling stock
Track gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Track owner(s) MNRR, CSXT, NS, MBTA, AMTK

The Lake Shore Limited is an overnight Amtrak passenger train service between Chicago and the Northeastern United States. The train uses the former main line of the New York Central Railroad, part of which is now the Empire Corridor. In Albany, New York, it divides, with separate sections serving New York City and Boston. Amtrak began service in 1975; its Lake Shore had operated over the same route in 1971–72. The train is named for the New York Central's Lake Shore Limited, which was discontinued in 1956.

History

The Lake Shore Limited is named after one of its illustrious predecessors that ran on the famed Water Level Route of the New York Central. Like the present day Lake Shore Limited, the New York Central edition offered service between New York and Boston and Chicago, although the New York Central used LaSalle Street Station. The New York Central annulled the Lake Shore Limited in 1956, as part of a system-wide reorganization. Service over the Water Level Route continued until the formation of Amtrak.[2]

The Lake Shore Limited at Poughkeepsie in 1978

Amtrak did not include service over the New York Central's Water Level Route in its original route plan; Chicago–New York traffic would be handled by the Broadway Limited which operated over the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line via Pittsburgh. Between May 1971 and January 1972 Amtrak operated the Lake Shore over the route with support from the state of Ohio. The modern Lake Shore Limited began running October 31, 1975 with both New York and Boston sections.[3]

The Lake Shore Limited was the last train to use the decaying Buffalo Central Terminal, departing on October 28, 1979. Since then it has used Buffalo–Depew.[4]

On the night of August 3, 1994, around 3:45 am, the westbound Lake Shore Limited, with two locomotives and fifteen cars, and carrying roughly 320 passengers, and nineteen crew members, derailed on Conrail-owned tracks (now owned by CSX) near Batavia, New York.[5] The initial derailment of the wheels of the third car on the train, occurred at milepost 403.7, and the train traveled for another three miles, until the general derailment of the train, at milepost 406.7. In all, fourteen cars derailed, with some sliding down an embankment, and 118 passengers and crew members were injured. However, there were no fatalities. The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause were the wheels coming off a section of flattened rail.[6]

Due to planned repair work on the Freedom Tunnel, Spuyten Duyvil Bridge, and Track 19 in New York's Penn Station, the Lake Shore Limited will operate to Boston only from May 26 to September 3, 2018.[7]

Possible future

In the January 2011 issue of Trains Magazine, this route was listed as one of five routes to undergo improvement evaluation by Amtrak in FY 2011, just as the previous five routes (Sunset, Eagle, Zephyr, Capitol, and Cardinal) had been examined in FY 2010.[8]

Amtrak published its Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) for the Lake Shore Limited in September 2011. One idea was to change the train's eastbound departure time from Chicago to be earlier. It currently departs at 9:30 PM, to facilitate connections from often-late West Coast trains. The improved departure time would add $2 million in yearly revenue.

Amtrak considered more radical changes to the operations of the Lake Shore Limited, including a re-route over the Chicago–Detroit Line, but rejected them.[9]

Operations

Amtrak Lake Shore Limited (interactive map)
A Lake Shore Limited train backs into Union Station in Chicago, with the Willis Tower visible in the background.

The Lake Shore Limited normally consists of both a Boston section (448/449) and a New York section (48/49) sections, which run combined between Chicago and Albany. As of September 2018, the train typically consists of two P42DC locomotives (or one P32AC-DM locomotive between Albany and New York), two Viewliner baggage cars, five Amfleet II coaches, one Amfleet I split Business/Cafe car, one Viewliner II diner (exclusively for sleeper passengers as a lounge serving cold boxed meals), and three Viewliner Sleepers.

A P32AC-DM locomotive is separated from train #49 at Albany–Rensselaer to prepare to be coupled with train #449 from Boston before heading to Chicago.

During the 2000s and 2010s the Lake Shore Limited carried either a Horizon Fleet or Amfleet lounge car.[10] Between November 2007 and December 2009, maintenance problems led Amtrak to withdraw the Heritage diners and substitute Amfleet Cafe-based diner-lites, a move that became a source of passenger displeasure and a liability for the route, as the Heritage cars could prepare fresh food on board.[11][12] In July 2016, Amtrak once again replaced the Lake Shore's full-service dining car with an Amfleet II diner-lite. This was due to Heritage shortages, as well as a multi-year delay in delivery of the new CAF Viewliner II cars, including 25 diners.[13] In June 2018, Amtrak replaced the Amfleet II diner-lites with Viewliner II diners and adjusted the on board service by serving exclusively pre-packaged meals.[14][15]

In normal service, at Albany, the train splits into its Boston and New York sections.[16] Low demand and cost-cutting led Amtrak to drop through service to Boston between 2003 and 2008; passengers made a cross-platform transfer to a shuttle train. The New York section uses a single dual-mode P32AC-DM for third-rail power in Pennsylvania Station. West of Albany, power is provided by two or three GE Genesis P42DC or P40DC diesel locomotives, which continue on to Boston.

Route details

The Lake Shore Limited between Chicago and New York City operates over the trackage of five railroad companies. The distance between Chicago and New York is 959 miles (1,543 km); between Chicago and Boston 1,017 miles (1,637 km). From Chicago to Cleveland, the train rides the Chicago Line, which belongs to Norfolk Southern Railway, and is also used by Amtrak's Chicago-Washington, DC, train, the Capitol Limited. From Cleveland to Poughkeepsie, the Lake Shore rides on trackage belonging to the following CSX Transportation subdivisions: Cleveland Terminal, Erie West, Lake Shore, Buffalo Terminal, Rochester, Mohawk, Selkirk, and Hudson. From Poughkeepsie to the Bronx, the train operates on Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line. And Amtrak tracks are used twice: between Hoffmans and Schenectady; and from the Bronx to Penn Station. The Albany-Boston extension runs on the trackage of several companies as well. The train travels on Amtrak's Post Road Branch from Rensselaer to nearby Schodack, from Schodack to Worcester on CSX's Berkshire and Boston subdivisions, and from Worcester to South Station on track owned and operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

There is a short distance of trackage between Hudson and Schenectady that allows for 110-mile-per-hour (177 km/h) operations. Delays to trains 448 and 449 have been common due to the high amount of freight traffic on the single-track railroad between Albany and Worcester.[17][18]

Station stops

The Lake Shore Limited runs eastbound as #48 from Chicago Union Station to New York Penn Station, returning westbound as #49. Station stops (in eastbound order) are South Bend, Elkhart, and Waterloo, Indiana; Bryan, Toledo, Sandusky, Elyria, and Cleveland, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Buffalo–Depew, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, Poughkeepsie, and Croton–Harmon, New York. The Boston section of the Lake Shore Limited runs eastbound as #448 from Albany–Rensselaer through Massachusetts with terminus at Boston South Station, returning westbound as #449. Station stops (in eastbound order) include Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, Framingham, and Boston Back Bay, Massachusetts.[19]

Service to Poughkeepsie, New York began on November 8, 2010.[20]

In FY 2010, only fifteen percent of passengers traveled between endpoints (Chicago and Boston or New York), although those travelers contributed 27 percent of ticket revenue. The remainder traveled to and from intermediate stations. According to Amtrak, passengers making connections in Chicago accounted for "a significant portion" of the Lake Shore Limited’s ridership and revenues.[9]

In the late 1990s Amtrak considered adding Dunkirk, New York, as a stop between Buffalo and Erie. Dunkirk was listed as a stop with service "to commence on a date to be announced" on several timetables, but the stop was never added.[21] In 2010–2011, Amtrak studied restoring the Hammond/Whiting stop (dropped in 2003) but rejected it because of difficulty of routing trains to the station's single platform.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "AMTRAK RIDERSHIP AND REVENUES CONTINUE STRONG GROWTH IN FY 2014" (PDF). Amtrak. October 27, 2014. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  2. ↑ Sanders, Craig (2003). Limiteds, Locals, and Expresses in Indiana, 1838–1971. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press. p. 79. ISBN 0-253-34216-3.
  3. ↑ Sanders, Craig (2006). Amtrak in the Heartland. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press. pp. 19–21. ISBN 0-253-34705-X.
  4. ↑ "New Buffalo Station". Amtrak NEWS. 6 (12): 6–7. November 1979. Retrieved August 9, 2013.
  5. ↑ Graczyk, Mark (November 24, 2013). "HIDDEN HISTORY: 118 hurt in Batavia train derailment, 1994". Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Railroad Accident Report: Derailment of Amtrak Train 49 on Conrail Trackage Near Batavia, New York, on August 3, 1994" (PDF). July 11, 1996. Retrieved December 3, 2014.
  7. ↑ "Most Hudson Line trains to Operate to/from Grand Central Terminal during Infrastructure and Bridge replacement Period" (Press release). Amtrak. April 10, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Amtrak's Improvement Wish List". Trains. January 2011. pp. 20–21.
  9. 1 2 3 "Crescent – Lake Shore Limited – Silver Service: PRIIA Section 210 Performance Improvement Plan" (PDF). Amtrak. September 2011. Archived from the original (pdf) on October 27, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Amtrak - Lake Shore Limited". USA Rail Guide. Retrieved October 22, 2011.
  11. ↑ Melzer, Matthew (January 28, 2008). "Dining with Amtrak's Diner Lite". NARP. Archived from the original on August 28, 2008. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
  12. ↑ "Amtrak restores 'Lake Shore' dining car". Trains. December 14, 2009. Retrieved May 5, 2010. (Subscription required (help)).
  13. ↑ "'Lake Shore Limited' to temporarily lose dining cars". Trains Magazine. July 25, 2016. Retrieved November 2, 2017. (Subscription required (help)).
  14. ↑ "A look at Amtrak's new cold meal service". Trains Magazine. July 5, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
  15. ↑ "Updated: Cold-meal service coming to 'Capitol,' 'Lake Shore Limited'". Trains Magazine. April 19, 2018. Retrieved September 16, 2018.
  16. ↑ "Lake Shore Limited Train Route Guide" (PDF). Amtrak. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 22, 2018. Retrieved January 20, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Lake Shore Limited - Train 449 On-Time Performance". Amtrak. September 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  18. ↑ "Lake Shore Limited - Train 449 On-Time Performance". Amtrak. September 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  19. ↑ "Lake Shore Limited". Amtrak. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  20. ↑ "NEW AMTRAK TIMETABLE ARRIVES FOR FALL-WINTER" (PDF). Amtrak. November 3, 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 4, 2012. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
  21. ↑ "DUNKIRK MAY OPEN AMTRAK STATION". Buffalo News  – via HighBeam Research (subscription required) . January 5, 1996. Retrieved December 3, 2012.
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