Amtrak to run Chicago-Miami route for first time since 1979

Amtrak, which ended direct rail links between Chicago and Miami in 1979, is reconnecting the Midwest and Miami by direct rail starting Nov. 10, if only temporarily.

The new service will combine one route between Chicago and Washington, DC, with another train between Miami and Washington to create a one-seat ride from Miami to the Midwest.

Amtrak says the upcoming East River tunnel rehabilitation project in New York will close one of the tunnel tubes at a time during construction, so two Amtrak train routes that had used the tunnel will be combined into the new service, named the Floridian, which will not serve New York.

The Floridian temporarily replaces the Capitol Limited and Silver Star trains. It will make intermediate stops in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Washington, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa.

Meanwhile, Silver Meteor trains will continue to operate daily between New York and Miami while the Floridian creates a new route for the 53-year-old railway, which has 500 destinations stitched together along 21,400 miles of track in the US and Canada.

“Our members have had a long-standing dream of restoring a one-seat ride from the Midwest to Florida, and we’re thrilled that a new generation of American passengers will be able to experience this service for themselves,” Jim Mathews, president & CEO of the Rail Passengers Association,” said in a prepared statement.

Amtrak did not say how long a trip between Chicago and Miami would take or how long the Floridian is expected to exist, though the tunnel project to restore two tubes damaged during Hurricane Sandy that created the new Amtrak schedule is likely to last for years. The four-tube connection, which opened in 1910, is part of the Northeast Corridor for Amtrak, which it calls the busiest rail corridor in the nation.

The Miami terminal that will be the southern end of the line for the Floridian is at 8303 NW 37th Ave. A new terminal for Amtrak’s rail network was built in 2016 beside Miami International Airport but has never been used. Versions of leases for the station have been ping-ponging between the railway and the Florida Department of Transportation, but a final accord must then be married with an accord with Miami International Airport on maintenance of shared areas of the Miami Intermodal Center before the dormant station can come to life.