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There were stories out on the creation of Amtrak. It began life known as "Railpax." The name was quickly changed to Amtrak closer to the start up date. I remember headlines on April 30th that bid farewell to trains that would be gone. On May 1st one headline in bold type read, "New Era for Rails." I was a suburban trainman on the CNW at the time. On April 30th there were a flood of TV news folk interviewing trainmen and passengers, and filming the last runs of The Capitol, The Pere Marquette, and of course the last of the CNW 400 leftovers, and Kate Shelley's ghost train to Clinton, at the CNW's Chicago depot. The next morning, a Saturday, there was no one around to watch the arrival of the last Capitol Limited into Chicago. All of the CNW equipment had been deadheaded home in the early morning hours of May 1st, so there were no CNW last arrivals. <br />Mark is absolutely right. There were certainly bigger news fi***o fry in that sad era so it's hard to say if anyone was paying attention except fans and regular riders. Memorable first era Amtrak slogans were "Tracks are Back," and "America's First Nationwide Rail Passenger Service." But the toilets still don't flush ( an early Amtrak complaint.) <br />Mitch
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