Broadway Ltd. Farewell (Part 2)
CRAIG SANDERS (216) 397-4356
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The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Limited Under Amtrak.
In the early days of Amtrak, the Broadway Limited ran combined with the
National Limited between New York and Harrisburg, and between Harrisburg and
Washington, D.C. Otherwise, Amtrak's Broadway Limited differed little
from the pre-Amtrak Broadway. The train still followed the same path it had
traversed since 1902, all of it former Pennsylvania Railroad track except for
nearly two miles in and out of Chicago Union Station.
On Nov. 14, 1971, Amtrak issued its first schedule that it could
call its own. It assigned the Broadway Limited numbers 40 (westbound) and 41
(eastbound), the numbers the train would carry until the end.
Amtrak considered the Broadway Limited one of its premier trains, if
not the premier train. On Amtrak's first anniversary -- May 1, 1972 -- the
Broadway became the first train to receive an all-Amtrak livery consist.
The equipment on the "new" Broadway, which cost $500,000 to refurbish,
offered new seats and upholstering in its 16 cars. The lounge car was equipped
with a Wurlitzer electric piano. Four television sets connected to a VCR for
showing movies enroute.
The refurbished Broadway Limited entered revenue service May 2, 1972
and carried 180 passengers between New York and Chicago. Chicago Mayor
Richard Daley was among the dignitaries who greeted the arrival of the train,
which reached Chicago Union Station on time.
Ironically, the consist of the first run of the Amtrak-refurbished
Broadway included sleeper No. 2619, Pacific Meadow. The ex-Union Pacific car,
later renumbered 2435, would be in the consist of the last eastbound Broadway
Limited more than 20 years later.
Amtrak tried to capitalize on the name and reputation of a train that
had long captured the imagination of the traveling public and had been
synonymous with luxury travel. But Amtrak's Broadway Limited, its new colors
and interiors notwithstanding, was not the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway
Limited. Nowhere was this more obvious than in the train's time keeping.
In 1971, the Broadway Limited's on-time performance was 66.7 percent.
During 1972, it slipped to 48.5 percent. But in 1973, the Broadway Limited's
on-time peformance plummeted to 6.8 percent.
The poor roadbed of the Penn Central tracks over which the train
operated got much of the blame, but the aging equipment that Amtrak inherited
from the railroads was also at fault. Amtrak tried several tactics to improve
the train's on-time performance. In April 1974, Amtrak took delivery of the
first six of its second order of 110 new SDP40F locomotives and assigned
some of them to the Broadway Limited.
In Feburary 1975, Amtrak created an equipment pool exclusively for the
Broadway Limited. Orders were given that no non-pool car was to be run on the
Broadway unless a serviceable car from the pool was not available.
But the Broadway's woes continued. During the summer of 1975, the train
often ran as much as two hours late. Defective equipment went unrepaired and
there often was not enough time to turn the train around at its terminus points
before the next Broadway was to leave. In October, the Broadway's schedule was
lengthened by more than an hour. That combined with Penn Central's trackwork
improved the train's time-keeping.
On March 1 of that year Amtrak's new president, Paul Reistrup, spent
his first day on the job riding the Broadway Limited. He took another ride
in August and wrote in a memo to his staff that the train was "what might have
been called an `accomodation train' years ago handling mail, express, chickens,
milk, cream, butter, sleepers [and] coaches. For what may be our heaviest long
distance route, we certainly must do better."
Such was the state of the Broadway Limited, once the pride of the
Pennsylvania Railroad, four years into its tenure with Amtrak.
In 1977, on the train's 75th birthday, cake and champagne were served
aboard the train. The westbound run featured an A-B-B-A locomotive set painted
in Amtrak's then new candy-stripe livery. A specially designed observation car
brought up the rear. However, the train arrived in Chicago two and a half
hours late. In 1987, Amtrak observed the 85th birthday of the Broadway Limited
by posing the train with a steam locomotive at Paradise, Pa.
On Dec. 14, 1979, the Broadway lost its all-former PRR routing. Conrail
had built a connection track between Clarke Jct. in Gary, Ind. and CP 501 on
the former New York Central main. For a short distance, the Broadway now had
to run on -- gasp -- the former rails of its chief rival.
Although the birth of Conrail eventually gave the Broadway a better
roadbed over which to travel, it also would ultimately lead to a major
disruption of the train's route. By 1988, Conrail had decided it no longer
needed all of the former PRR mainline across northern Indiana, favoring
instead the ex-NYC mainline via Elkhart. In early March 1988, Conrail
ceased using the Fort Wayne line for through freight service. It notified
Amtrak that it would be responsible for all maintenance costs on 19 miles
of track between Gary and Valparaiso, Ind. that Conrail wasn't using anymore.
Amtrak hemmed and hawed and finally on Nov. 8, 1989 announced it would
re-route the Broadway Limited off the former PRR-mainline between Chicago and
Pittsburgh. The Broadway would continue on its current route in and out of
Chicago, but would join the former B&O, now owned by CSX, at CP 501 near Gary.
The ex-B&O had not seen a scheduled passenger train since May 1,
1971, the day Amtrak began operations. One of those last B&O trains was a
Chicago and Washington train named the Capitol Limited. On Oct. 1, 1981, Amtrak
had re-routed the Broadway's Washington section and renamed it the Capitol
Limited. Previously, the Broadway's Washington section split/merged in
Philadelphia. Now, it would split/merge in Pittsburgh. In part, the re-routing
of the Washington segment of the Broadway was intended to take up some of the
slack left by the discontinuance of Amtrak's Cincinnati and Washington
"Shenandoah."
On Oct. 26, 1986, the Broadway and Capitol became separate trains,
largely because of increased mail traffic. But they followed the same route
between Pittsburgh and Chicago.
This changed on Nov. 11, 1990. The Capitol Limited was shifted to
the former NYC route via South Bend, Toledo and Cleveland -- which also hosted
the Chicago and New York/Boston "Lake Shore Limited" -- while the Broadway
went to CSX and the former B&O.
For a brief time in 1990, the kind of luxury for which the
Broadway Limited had been famous returned. American European Express, launched
luxury train service between New York and Chicago. But the service was in
in AEE's own cars, which were not accessible to Amtrak patrons. AEE ended its
Chicago and New York service in November, switching to the Capitol Limited and
later operating its own train over the route of the Cardinal.
In 1994, change was again in the wind at Amtrak. No longer was the
Broadway Limited viewed as the company's premier long distance train. On
April 1, the Broadway lost its full-service dining cars, which were assigned
to the Cardinal. Such a move would have been unthinkable years earlier.
Amtrak's favorite eastern long distance train was now the Capitol
Limited. It received Superliner cars in October and upgraded first class
service. Putting Superliner equipment on the Capitol Limited eventually paved
for the way for full-service diners to return to the Broadway in November.
Meanwhile, the staff at Amtrak's headquarters was busy confronting a
challenge that threatened the corporation's survival. Amtrak had a new
president whose first order of business was to get Amtrak's financial house
back in shape.
The glory years of Graham Claytor were over. A Republican-dominated
Congress was talking seriously about slashing Amtrak's federal funding. Such
talk was not new. Former President Ronald Reagan tried several times to end
federal funding of Amtrak. But Reagan's efforts to "zero out" Amtrak funding
were rebuffed by the Congress.
Now the climate in Washington and Congress had changed. To be
sure, most in Congress did not -- yet -- favor ending all federal support for
Amtrak. But it was clear that Amtrak's support was going to be cut.
Amtrak hired a team of consultants to assess the financial performance
of its trains. Their analysis has been disputed, but Amtrak's management and
its board of directors relied in part on the consultants' findings to decide
what trains would be cut.
In December, Amtrak announced train cuts designed to save $364 million a
year. Hundreds of employees were going to lose their jobs. Although the
Broadway Limited was spared, there were rumblings that further cuts would be
announced in early 1995.
While Amtrak's number crunchers were at work deciding which trains to
end and which routes to shorten, the Broadway underwent a final re-route. A
year earlier, the Amtrak board had approved funding a new interlocking at
New Castle, Pa. to enable the Broadway to use a faster, more direct route
into Pittsburgh. When the Broadway had been re-routed in 1990, it was placed on
the original B&O line between New Castle and Pittsburgh, a line of many curves,
grades and slow running. The B&O had used the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie line
for its own passenger trains between New Castle and Pittsburgh. But the
P&LE went to P&LE station across the Monogahela River from downtown Pittsburgh.
Amtrak wanted to stay at Penn Station.
On Oct. 31, 1994, the Broadway Limited began using Conrail's
Youngstown line, a former PRR route, to reach Pittsburgh from New Castle.
In early April, 1995, Amtrak's Board of Directors met once again to
consider train cuts. It announced that 24 percent of its routes would be
trimmed in June and September. Without these reductions, Amtrak President Downs
asserted, Amtrak would be bankrupt by mid-summer.
In years past, when Amtrak faced similar fiscal predicaments, it had
gone to Congress for a supplemental appropriation. Congressmen didn't like it,
because Amtrak would release a list of trains likely to die without the
extra money. Such strong-arm tactics might have worked in the 1970s, but Downs
knew they would not work in the '90s. Indeed, Downs knew that Amtrak would be
fortunate to even match its previous year's appropriation.
Cutting trains and trimming service was not a new tactic at Amtrak.
From time to time in the past when enough Congressmen had gotten fed up with
Amtrak's seemingly growing appetite for federal funds, studies were conducted
and routes were trimmed or eliminated.
In the past, the names of the trains discontinued were often little
known beyond their region of the country or else had long been viewed as
hopeless money losers. They included such names as Floridian, Champion,
Hilltopper, Shenandoah, National Limited, North Coast Hiawatha, Black Hawk,
Prairie Marksman, Michigan Executive and Blue Ridge.
On this April day, a few regional trains were announced as the
latest sacrificial lambs, among them the Loop and the Statehouse. But one name
on the hit list grabbed everyone's attention. On Sept. 10, 1995, the
Broadway Limited would be no more.
As expected, the cuts announced in April didn't all stick. The state of
Illinois ponied up enough money to save the Loop and Statehouse and to keep the
Illini and Illinois Zephyr running daily. An internal Amtrak study concluded
that it would cost more to terminate the Cardinal at Cincinnati than would be
gained by making the Queen City the train's western terminus.
So the Amtrak brass decided to keep the Cardinal afterall, although
it's eastern terminums was changed from New York to Washington and it was given
Superliner equipment which did not include a full-service diner. The price
for saving the Cardinal was killing off what remained of the Hoosier State.
There was periodic talk of trying to save the Broadway Limited, but it
was just that -- talk. No serious efforts to save the train surfaced. That
would require getting two states -- Ohio and Indiana -- to help fund the train.
Neither had spent as much as a dime in the past to help fund a passenger train.
Technically, Amtrak wasn't killing the Broadway, only discontinuing the
portion of the train that operated west of Pittsburgh. Between Pittsburgh and
New York the train would continue operating, although with a new name -- Three
Rivers -- and with new numbers, 46 and 47 (the numbers formerly used by the
Pennsylvanian).
But travelers knew better and Amtrak took to describing what it was
doing as "retiring" the Broadway. A retirement sounds so much more dignified
than a killing. So through the hot summer, the Broadway Limited continued to
run toward its fate. Not only would the train fall a few years short of
having run for a century, it would not live to see Amtrak's 25th anniversary.
NEXT: A Trip on the Next-to-Last Westbound Broadway Limited.
Mark D Bej
It was Craig Sanders
said:
> > No longer was the Broadway Limited viewed as the company's premier
> > long distance train.
>
> I don't agree that the Broadway was Amtrak's "Premier" long distance train.
> The Coast Starlight has for years enjoyed the highest patronage and best
> scenery of any Amtrak train. If any train is Premier, it is the Coast
> Starlight...
In terms of train getting newest equipment earliest, train getting most
advertising, etc., which is the sense in which Craig meant it, he is
correct. You are using a different valuation system, better for deciding
where to run trains in the here and now [though D&RGW fans may dispute your
"scenery" criterion.]
> Secondly, I don't know why everyone is lamenting the Broadway's passage.
> According to Pennsy records, the train was a substantial money loser back
> in the 1930s.
I suspect _many_ trains lost money inthe 30s, particularly many passenger
trains.
> They ran it only for prestige against the NYC.
I doubt it. If it weren't the _Broadway_, it would have been something
else. Like saying that United only flies Chicago to LA because American,
or Delta, or what have you, does. My response is, "of course they do",
that's the nature of competition. But it was not done _only_ because of
the 20th Century, even though that may have been the original reason for
creating a _new_ train. The competition would have been there either way.
> On one
> occasion, the Broadway ran from New York to Chicago with ONE passenger.
> Amtrak is trying to survive, not run trains for the sake of running trains.
--
Mark D. Bej
Jonathan D. Howard
>
> No longer was the Broadway Limited viewed as the company's premier
>long distance train.
>
>I don't agree that the Broadway was Amtrak's "Premier" long distance train.
>The Coast Starlight has for years enjoyed the highest patronage and best
>scenery of any Amtrak train. If any train is Premier, it is the Coast
>Starlight...
>
>in the 1930s. They ran it only for prestige against the NYC. On one
>occasion, the Broadway ran from New York to Chicago with ONE passenger.
>Amtrak is trying to survive, not run trains for the sake of running trains.
>
>
Who made money on anything (but Hollywood motion pictures) in the 1930's?
One passenger? Well, I was on a Northworst DC-10 out of Boston last
January 12th with about a dozen passengers (going to the Twin Cities to
balance the fleet, I suppose). As a percentage of total seats, I imagine
that is comparable to one passenger on the Broadway.
Amtrak premier train, military intelligence, pretty ugly...
JDHoward
===============================
Jonathan D. Howard
jdho...@students.wisc.edu
Schultz, Jeff
John H. Deasy
"Premier" long distance train. The Coast Starlight has for years
enjoyed the highest patronage and best scenery of any Amtrak train.
Craig Sanders' Broadway Limited series motivate me to add my two cents
to the discussion.
Scenery is a matter of personal preference, so let's not waste the
time arguing that issue.
Equipment - I can recall the hoopla surrounding the newly refurbished
cars assigned to the Broadway Limited in the spring of 1972. The cars
looked great sitting at New York's Pennsylvania Station ready to
depart for Chicago on #41. It was another visible sign of the young
Amtrak doing something to make the trains worth traveling again.
Unfortunately, the refurbishment was more cosmetic than mechanical.
After awhile, their reliability was the same as most of the other axle
driven DC generator & battery powered, steam heated streamliner era
passenger cars.
On my first trip (August 1974) on the train, I realized that the
ex-PRR twin unit diner was something special that distinguished the
Broadway from other Amtrak trains. It was a very positive experience.
The air conditioning worked fine in my slumbercoach, the lounge and
the twin-unit diner; the food was tasty & the service good; the crew
even let me spend some time in the vestibule with the top half of the
dutch door open - what more could a young enthusiast want?
Sometime around 1975, I recall that Amtrak refurbished a group of
ex-Rock Island 8 roomette 6 double bedroom sleepers for assignment to
40 & 41. All but one (AIR FORCE ACADEMY) of these cars were renamed
for places along the route of the train (such as BROOKLYN BRIDGE,
CENTRAL PARK, GOLDEN TRIANGLE, STEEL CITY, etc.).
Thus I think you can say that Amtrak tried to give the Broadway a
little something extra in the way of equipment in the pre-HEP days.
Perhaps they tried to make it their premier train, but the statistics
(ridership, on-time performance and financial) seem to say the Coast
Starlight has earned a greater claim to the distinction of actually
being a premier train.
Jack Deasy
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Broadway Ltd. Farewell (Part 2)
Author: The Railroad List <RAIL...@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU> at ~GW1
Date: 9/19/95 10:21 AM
Second of a series about the last runs of Amtrak's Broadway Limited.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Rise and Fall of the Broadway Limited Under Amtrak.
<snip>
Amtrak considered the Broadway Limited one of its premier trains, if
not the premier train. On Amtrak's first anniversary -- May 1, 1972 -- the
Broadway became the first train to receive an all-Amtrak livery consist.
The equipment on the "new" Broadway, which cost $500,000 to refurbish,
offered new seats and upholstering in its 16 cars. The lounge car was equipped
with a Wurlitzer electric piano. Four television sets connected to a VCR for
showing movies enroute.
<snip>
In Feburary 1975, Amtrak created an equipment pool exclusively for the
Broadway Limited. Orders were given that no non-pool car was to be run on the
Broadway unless a serviceable car from the pool was not available.
<snip>
Schultz, Jeff
sections. During the depression the ultra rich still had $$. Hey, I am
just relaying the historical record as I have been told. You don't have to
believe me, but the Broadway was a substantial money looser for years
through the 30's and 40's (war years excluded of course).
Furthermore, I'm not surprized that in January on a Thursday, a Northworst
DC-10 out of Boston last
January 12th had about a dozen passengers on it. Roughly 3% passenger
capacity. However, how much mail was the plane carrying...