CSSHEGEWISCHWhen you consider that the "Texas Zephyr" was discontinued by 1968, I'm not sure that a rail market for that route exists any more.
It was abandoned in Sept 1967 due to loss of the mail contract. The train had sleeping and full dining car service to the very end along with several coaches I believe. I have seen an older picture of one of the ski specials at approx 12-13 cars led by two back to back E units but no idea on the date. SWOPE SKI SPECIAL on the side of the train it said. No idea who SWOPE is. I believe the ski train originated in Houston via Dallas on the way to Denver.....if that helps.
The Texas Zephyr was popular in Dallas because of it's look and schedule.
http://www.streamlinerschedules.com/concourse/track9/texzephyr196009.html
CMStPnP Still a big proponent on Dallas to Denver. When that was run by the private sector there was quite the traffic for ski specials to Denver from both Houston and Dallas.
Still a big proponent on Dallas to Denver. When that was run by the private sector there was quite the traffic for ski specials to Denver from both Houston and Dallas.
Deggesty A question: how much passenger traffic was there on each of the routes named in 1970? The people who planned the routes looked at the traffic on many routes.
A question: how much passenger traffic was there on each of the routes named in 1970? The people who planned the routes looked at the traffic on many routes.
Shouldn't the question be: how much traffic is there today on north-south routes?
The I-35 corridor is busy enough, one would think, covering Duluth - Minneapolis/St Paul - Des Moines - Kansas City - Wichita - Oklahoma City - Dallas/Ft Worth - Austin - San Antonio. I'd like to at least see corridor trains on sections of that stretch. Dallas - OKC of course already has Amtrak service.
It would also seem to make sense to run passenger service along the front range in Colorado, something like Cheyenne - Fort Collins - Denver - Colorado Springs - Pueblo - La Junta or Trinidad to connect with the Southwest Chief.
Johnny
One of the things that really irked me about Amtrak and how it was conceived was the lack of North-South routes in its national system. Sure, there was the short-lived Floridian but, beyond that, nothing in the mid-section of the country save for Chicago - New Orleans. Here are at least two corridors that deserve a look at:
Twin Cities - Kansas City
Billings - Cheyenne - Denver - Colorado Springs/Pueblo (to hook up with SWC at Trinidad/La Junta
Thoughts?
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