City of New Orleans

For other uses, see City of New Orleans (disambiguation).

City of New Orleans
Amtrak's City of New Orleans stops at the Memphis, Tennessee station in 2005.
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Status	Operating
Locale	Central United States
First service	May 1, 1971
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Average ridership	628 daily 229,270 total (FY10)[1]
Route
Start	Chicago, Illinois
No. of intermediate stops	17
End	New Orleans, Louisiana
Distance travelled	934 mi (1,503 km)
Average journey time	19 hours
Service frequency	Daily each way
Train number(s)	58, 59
On-board services
Class(es)	Coach and First Class (sleeper)
Seating arrangements	Reserved Coach Seat Superliner Lower Level Coach Seats
Sleeping arrangements	Superliner Roomette (2 beds) Family Bedroom (4 beds) Superliner Bedroom (2 beds) Superliner Bedroom Suite (4 beds) Superliner Accessible Bedroom (2 beds)
Catering facilities	Fully licensed dining car On-board café
Observation facilities	Sightseer Lounge Car
Baggage facilities	Checked baggage available at selected stations
Technical
Gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Route map Legend 0 mi / 00:00 hr Chicago Union Station Chicago Central Station [2] (route change by March 1972) 25 / 00:54 Homewood 57 / 01:23 Kankakee (F) Gilman 129 / 02:34 Champaign-Urbana 174 / 03:13 Mattoon (F) 201 / 03:37 Effingham (F) 254 / 04:25 Centralia (F) 310 / 05:26 Carbondale Cairo Illinois/Kentucky border 407 / 07:14 Fulton (F) Kentucky/Tennessee border 442 / 07:56 Newbern-Dyersburg (F) 520 / 10:50 Memphis Tennessee/Mississippi border (route change in 1995) Batesville Grenada 644 / 13:00 Greenwood Winona Durant 697 / 13:51 Yazoo City (F) Canton 741 / 15:20 Jackson 777 / 15:55 Hazlehurst (F) 797 / 16:16 Brookhaven (F) 821 / 16:40 McComb (F) Mississippi/Louisiana border 873 / 17:28 Hammond 926 mi / 19:32 hr New Orleans Notes: F – Flag stop

The City of New Orleans is a nightly passenger train operated by Amtrak which travels 934 miles (1,503 km) between Chicago, Illinois and New Orleans, Louisiana. Before Amtrak's formation in 1971, the train was operated by the Illinois Central Railroad along the same route (though changes have been made since then). The train currently operates on a 19½ hour schedule. Within Illinois the City of New Orleans shares a route also served by a daily morning train, the Saluki, and a daily afternoon train, the Illini. The Illini and Saluki terminate at Carbondale, Illinois.

During fiscal year 2010, the City of New Orleans carried a total of 229,270 passengers, a 16.6% increase from FY 2009's total of 196,659 passengers.^[1] The train had a total revenue of $17,248,582 during FY 2010, an increase of 15.2% from a total revenue of $14,976,461 in FY 2009.^[1]

History

See also: Panama Limited

The Illinois Central Railroad introduced the original City of New Orleans on April 27, 1947 as a daytime companion to the overnight Panama Limited. EMD E7 diesel locomotives pulled a new lightweight Pullman Company coaches. The 921-mile (1,482 km) route, which the City of New Orleans covered in 15 hours 55 minutes, was the longest daytime schedule in the United States.^[3][4] The City of New Orleans exchanged St. Louis—New Orleans through cars at Carbondale, Illinois and Louisville—New Orleans cars at Fulton, Kentucky. The average speed of the new train was nearly 60 miles per hour (97 km/h); a result of the largely flat route of the Illinois Central along the Mississippi River and maximum speeds of up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h).^[5][6] By October 25, 1959 the timetable had lengthened to 16 hours 30 minutes.^[7] The train remained popular throughout the 1960s and gained ex-Missouri Pacific Railroad dome coaches in 1967.^[8]

Amtrak ownership

When Amtrak assumed operation of U.S. passenger train service on May 1, 1971, the train's Chicago—New Orleans service was initially operated as the City of New Orleans on the traditional daytime schedule. Because this train made no connections with other trains at either New Orleans or Chicago, the City of New Orleans, Amtrak moved the train to an overnight schedule on November 14, 1971 and renamed it the Panama Limited.^[9]

1980s

Amtrak restored the City of New Orleans name, while retaining the overnight schedule, on February 1, 1981. Amtrak hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the eponymous song written by Steve Goodman and recorded in 1972 by Arlo Guthrie.^[10]

In the 1980s, the City of New Orleans' business relied primarily on coach passengers who boarded and disembarked at small stations south of Memphis. As a result of this, the City of New Orleans was equipped with only one sleeper, and provided none of the sleeper-class luxuries that were standard on the other Amtrak long-distance trains. In step with the low level of luxury services, the Heritage-equipped City of New Orleans also did not have a diner. While the train did have a dome-coach, an Amfleet II café and a Heritage lounge, true sit-down meals were not offered and passengers from the lone 10/6 sleeper were forced to eat pre-prepared reheated meals in the Heritage lounge car. In fact, in J. David Ingles' review of the City of New Orleans for Trains magazine, the train was named "Amtrak's Least Glamorous Long-Distance Train".

The northbound City of New Orleans began stopping at Gilman, Illinois on October 26, 1986. Gilman had last seen service in 1971; the Illini stopped there as well. Service to Cairo, Illinois, south of Carbondale, ended on October 25, 1987.^[11]

1990s

"Drumhead" logos such as this often adorned the end of the observation car on the Illinois Central's City of New Orleans.

Amtrak operated the City of New Orleans reliably through the 1980s and into the 1990s; in 1992, the City of New Orleans had the highest on-time performance rate of all Amtrak services at 87%.^[12]

In an effort to make the City of New Orleans more "fun" – that is, more attractive to potential customers – and to make up for the fact that the once-entertaining dome car's windows were now too dirty to see through, Amtrak employees started holding bingo games in the lounge car. While the bingo didn't attract any more customers to the train, the games significantly boosted the crew's morale and made the long ride (which included huge numbers of coach passengers boarding at overnight stations) slightly more bearable. However, when the Food and Drug Administration inspected the food-service cars on all of Amtrak's long-distance trains in August and September 1992, the inspectors declared the Heritage lounge car's kitchen area "unsanitary."

Starting September 21, 1992, the Heritage lounge car ran only between Chicago and Carbondale. Very early in 1993, this practice ended and the Heritage lounge cars which had previously served the City of New Orleans were sent to New York to be used on trains such as the Montrealer and Empire Service trains. With the loss of the Heritage lounge came another blow to the City of New Orleans' sleeper service. The sleeper passengers, who had previously been treated to barely decent meals in the Heritage lounge car, now faced microwaved tray-meals in the already overcrowded Amfleet café as their only hot meal options.^{[citation needed]}

When the last Superliner II sleeping cars arrived on February 27, 1994, they were coupled into train formations and underwent test runs. The first Superliner-equipped City of New Orleans left Chicago and New Orleans on March 3, 1994. Although the City was now Superliner-equipped, it still ran with ex-Santa Fe Hi-Level cars, which were officially part of the Heritage Fleet. Despite being a Heritage car, the Hi-Level lounge cars were in significantly better condition than the old domes, and they offered more seats with panoramic views as well as a larger lounge area on the lower level. On October 30, 1994, the City of New Orleans departed Chicago with a Superliner II Sightseer Lounge and a coach section made up of only Superliner II coaches, officially ending the Heritage Fleet's tenure.^{[citation needed]}

Also, with the delivery of the Superliner II cars came new diners, providing the City of New Orleans with real dining service. While the menu was smaller than that of the other Superliner trains, the new dining service was significantly better than what the City of New Orleans' previous incarnation offered. In April 1996, the City of New Orleans' dining car received a customized menu and dishes that reflected New Orleans' cuisine. Also, as a throwback to the Illinois Central's all-sleeper Panama Limited and all-coach City of New Orleans, the French Toast was: a) Improved to the caliber of the Illinois Central's French Toast, and; b) Listed on the menu in French, as it had been on the Illinois Central's flagship trains.^{[citation needed]}

Throughout the City of New Orleans' improvements, New Orleans became a focus city for Amtrak. The Capitol Limited and Auto Train received Superliner II cars when the City of New Orleans did, freeing up numerous Amfleet II coaches. These now-unassigned Amfleet II coaches, as well as the Amfleet II café cars freed up by the City of New Orleans switch to Superliners meant that the New York – New Orleans Crescent was able to retire its Heritage Fleet coaches and lounge cars. The third New Orleans train, the Sunset Limited, also benefited from the arrival of Superliner II cars, and the Sunset's passengers experienced new levels of service, as well as slightly higher on-time performances due to the retirement of the Hi-Level cars. With all of New Orleans' trains now significantly upgraded, crews were based in New Orleans. The Crescent, City of New Orleans, and Sunset Limited received similarly themed lounge cars, route guides, and tour guides in the lounge cars who gave talks about passing scenery and points of interest.^{[citation needed]}

On September 10, 1995, the train was rerouted between Memphis and Jackson due to the Illinois Central Railroad's desire to abandon the original route (the Grenada District) in favor of the newer and flatter Yazoo District. The old route had been the Mississippi and Tennessee Railroad from Memphis to Grenada and the Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad from Grenada to Jackson. Station stops were at Batesville, Mississippi; Grenada, Mississippi; Winona, Mississippi; Durant, Mississippi and Canton, Mississippi.

On March 15, 1999, the City of New Orleans collided with a flatbed semi-trailer near Bourbonnais. Of the 217 people aboard the train, eleven people were killed in the Bourbonnais train accident. The fourth car, where the fatalities occurred, was engulfed in flames following the collision at the crossing.^[13]

2000s

While all this improvement boosted the City of New Orleans' ridership, it eventually started sharing equipment with the Empire Builder and the train lost its ambiance. When Amtrak standardized the diner service on Superliner trains in 2002, the City of New Orleans lost any remaining trace of individuality. The dramatic improvements which had successfully attracted more patronage were now gone, with the train's consist down to a single P42DC locomotive, two sleepers, a diner, a lounge, and two coaches. And then came Amtrak's ill-advised Cross Country Café Diner/Lounge experiment, with simplified meals, snacks and beverages all served in a single diner-lounge car. A now-retired Amtrak Food and Beverage official wrote, "trying to have one food service car on a train with three coaches (full, most nights) and one and one half sleepers (one full sleeper and one half of the dorm), just plain overwhelmed both the car and the staff, despite the best efforts of the crew." In January 2010, the separate Lounge car was restored to the City of New Orleans, again giving it two food service cars: the Cross Country Café serving as a full dining car; and the Lounge for snacks and beverages.

Similar downgrades happened to the other New Orleans trains; the Crescent, upon the delivery of the Viewliners, was put into a common consist pool with the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and Silver Palm; after only a few years of being a remarkable train once again, the Crescent was reduced to a simple group of train cars.^{[citation needed]}

On April 6, 2004, the City of New Orleans derailed near Flora, Mississippi, approximately 15 miles (24 km) north of Jackson, while en route to Chicago. The train was traveling at 78 miles per hour (126 km/h) when it derailed, and resulted in one fatality, Clara Downs, of Chicago, three serious injuries, and 43 minor injuries. A subsequent National Transportation Safety Board investigation determined that deterioration of the track due to poor maintenance caused the accident.^[14]

Because of damage to the states of Mississippi and Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina, Amtrak was forced in late August 2005 to cancel service south of Memphis, Tennessee. Service was first restored as far south as Hammond, Louisiana, and on October 8, 2005, Amtrak resumed service to New Orleans.^[15] In December 2005 Arlo Guthrie, who helped popularize the song "City of New Orleans", led a fundraiser aboard the City of New Orleans and at several stops along the train's route to help in the hurricane recovery efforts.^[16][17]

2010s

In the January 2011 issue of Trains Magazine, this route was listed as one of five routes to be looked at by Amtrak in FY 2012 and examined like previous routes (Sunset, Eagle, Zephyr, Capitol, and Cardinal) were examined in FY 2010.^[18]

Route details

In 1995 the City of New Orleans shifted from the Grenada District (blue) to the Yazoo District (red) in northern Mississippi.

Upon Amtrak's creation in 1971, the City of New Orleans was one of four trains that called at Chicago's Central Station, which was originally Illinois Central's terminal in Chicago. All Amtrak trains were consolidated to Union Station by March 1972.^[2]

The tracks used were once part of the Illinois Central Railroad system, and are now owned by the CN. The following lines are used:

• St. Charles Air Line Railroad (IC), Chicago Union Station to the shore of Lake Michigan, now CN
• Illinois Central Railroad Chicago Branch and main line, Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, now CN
• Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad (IC), Cairo to Fulton, Kentucky, now CN
• Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroad (IC), Fulton to Memphis, Tennessee, now CN
• Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (IC), Memphis to Lake Cormorant, Mississippi, now CN
• Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (IC) branch, Lake Cormorant to Lambert, Mississippi, now CN
• Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (IC) branch, Lambert to Swan Lake, Mississippi, now CN
• Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (IC) branch, Swan Lake to Black Bayou, Mississippi, now CN
• Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (IC) branch, Black Bayou to Greenwood, Mississippi, now CN
• Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad (IC) Yazoo branch, Greenwood to Jackson, Mississippi, now CN
• Chicago, St. Louis and New Orleans Railroad (IC), Jackson to New Orleans, Louisiana, now CN

In fiscal year 2004, the City of New Orleans achieved an on-time performance rating of 67.6%.^[19] The train's average on-time performance rating for fiscal year 2006 was 86.8%, reaching as high as 93.5% for the month of May 2006.^[20]

While suggestions have been made to extend the City of New Orleans service east from New Orleans to Orlando, Florida, Amtrak has not yet made any formal proposals to do so.^[21]

Folk song

Main article: City of New Orleans (song)

"City of New Orleans" is a folk music song written and first performed by Steve Goodman in 1970 and subsequently recorded by Arlo Guthrie in 1972 and many other artists, notably Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, John Denver (with slightly different lyrics), Judy Collins, and Jerry Reed. The song lyrics trace the trail of the train route (above) in celebrating the "...disappearin' railroad blues...." Interestingly enough, Tom Rush performed and recorded a folk song (based on some Bukka White songs) about the Panama Limited, the overnight train along the same route as the City of New Orleans.

See also

• Passenger train service on the Illinois Central Railroad

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} "AMTRAK SETS NEW RIDERSHIP RECORD, THANKS PASSENGERS FOR TAKING THE TRAIN (link to PDF download)". Amtrak. 11 October 2010. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer/Page/1237608337144/1237608345018?passedMonth=October&passedYear=2010. Retrieved 26 November 2010. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Kelly, John. "Amtrak's beginnings". Classic Trains (Kalmbach Publishing). http://trains.com/ctr/default.aspx?c=a&id=54. Retrieved 2007-07-11. 
3. ^ Murray (2006), 91.
4. ^ Sanders (2006), 92.
5. ^ Schafer (2002), 117.
6. ^ Murray (2006), 111.
7. ^ Downey (2007), 35.
8. ^ Schafer (2002), 117.
9. ^ Sanders (2006), 94.
10. ^ Sanders (2006), 96.
11. ^ Sanders (2006), 105.
12. ^ "NARP: December 1992 Hotlines". National Association of Rail Passengers. 1992-12-04. http://www.narprail.org/h9212.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-11. 
13. ^ National Transportation Safety Board (2002-02-05). "Railroad accident report: Collision of National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) train 59 with a loaded truck-semitrailer combination at a highway/rail grade crossing in Bourbonnais, Illinois, March 15, 1999" (PDF). http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2002/RAR0201.pdf. Retrieved 2005-01-27. 
14. ^ National Transportation Safety Board (2005-06-26). "Derailment of Amtrak Train No. 58, City of New Orleans, near Flora, Mississippi, April 6, 2004" (PDF). http://www.ntsb.gov/doclib/reports/2005/RAR0502.pdf. Retrieved 2007-07-11. 
15. ^ "City of New Orleans rolls into Big Easy". Associated Press, reprinted by MSNBC. 2005-10-08. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9633913/. Retrieved 2006-10-09. 
16. ^ Marcus, Richard (2005-09-21). "Arlo Guthrie's City of New Orleans Benefit". http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/09/21/090543.php. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
17. ^ Lydersen, Kari (2005-12-17). "Storied Train Used As Vehicle For Giving". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601733.html. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
18. ^ "Amtrak's Improvement Wish List", Trains, January 2011, 20-21.
19. ^ "Amtrak On-Time Performance and Losses for FY 2004". United States Department of Transportation, Office of Public Affairs. Archived from the original on 2007-02-18. http://web.archive.org/web/20070218214653/http://www.dot.gov/affairs/AmtrakOn-TimePerformanceChart.htm. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
20. ^ Amtrak (2007-06-07). "Monthly Performance Report for May 2007" (PDF). p. E-7. http://www.amtrak.com/pdf/0705monthly.pdf. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 
21. ^ Theroux, Paul (2007-03-08). "This Week At Amtrak 2007-03-08". United Rail Passenger Alliance. http://www.unitedrail.org/2007/03/08/this-week-at-amtrak-2007-03-08/. Retrieved 2007-07-12. 

References

• Downey, Clifford J. (2007). Chicago and the Illinois Central Railroad. Arcadia Publishing. http://books.google.com/books?id=O14eRQM9xrYC. 
• Johnston, Bob (January 1996). "Exiled to the Delta". Trains. 
• Murray, Tom (2006). Illinois Central Railroad. Voyageur Press. http://books.google.com/books?id=6x6LykobKRUC. 
• Sanders, Craig (2006). Amtrak in the Heartland. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-34705-X. 
• Schafer, Mike (June 1991). "Amtrak's atlas". Trains. 
• Schafer, Mike; Joe Welsh (2002). Streamliners: A History of the Railroad Icon. MBI. http://books.google.com/books?id=qqBLFo5kHjgC. 

External links

• Amtrak - City of New Orleans
• Photos of the modern City of New Orleans in Memphis
• Champaign-Urbana MTD - History of Illinois Central Railroad
• The City Of New Orleans and other named trains in the Memphis Area
• Amtrak's City of New Orleans (and its predecessor, The Panama Limited.) in Memphis
• Photos from the 2004 derailment scene
• Southern High-Speed Rail Commission
• The City of New Orleans