Three passenger corridor revivals I’d love to see

I’m not holding my breath, but the Federal Railroad Administration late last year released a long list of routes chosen for what it calls its Corridor Identification and Development Program, which the Trains News Wire describes as “a catch-all group of 69 potential future Amtrak routes, possible extensions to existing routes, efforts to increase service on existing routes, and future high-speed systems.”

At this point it’s all just projections, with a modest amount of money set aside to research various routes and carrying a horizon line of 10 years — enough to make me think, “I’ll believe any of these when I see them.” Still, it’s fun to dream about what’s possible, and several of these routes are especially exciting to me. Here are three from among the many options:

Instituting Cleveland-Detroit service, for instance. This would basically re-create what New York Central did nearly a century ago with its Mercury, a day train operating on a fast schedule via Toledo. Launched in July 1936, the streamlinedMercury must have been a head-turner for an industrial region coming out of the Depression. The original train was comprised of rebuilt heavyweight coaches retrieved from Putnam Division service, pulled by K5d 4-6-2s Nos. 4915 and 4917 dressed in an “upside down bathtub” shroud.

The best feature of the train must have been the observation car, a deep-windowed affair that would have afforded spectacular views as the train raced across the bridges and long causeways hugging the Lake Erie shore near Sandusky. The Mercury was popular enough to cause NYC to extend the brand, eventually running nearly identical trains Chicago-Detroit and Cincinnati-Detroit, albeit with different motive power, usually 4-6-4 Hudsons. The Mercury family remained on the schedule only briefly, though, with the Cleveland Mercury bringing down the curtain in July 1959.

This wouldn’t be the first time Amtrak has made it possible to use the train between Cleveland and Detroit. In 1980, the railroad extended one of its Detroit-Chicago trains to Toledo and called it the Lake Cities, allowing passengers to access the Lake Shore Limited. But the service was woefully slow: nearly two hours for the 57 miles between Michigan Central Station and Toledo’s Central Union Terminal. I rode it once and swore “never again.” The Lake Cities was put out of its misery in 1995. But that doesn’t mean Cleveland-Detroit service can’t work. The string of cities and small towns along the west end of Lake Erie have a lot in common, and reinvention of the Mercury just might work.

You might say the same about another proposal, one that resonates with my family background: revival of service on CSX between Atlanta, Chattanooga, Nashville, and Memphis. In the 1950s this was the late, great Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis. Part of the route was home to a number of famous Chicago-Florida streamliners, among them the Dixie Flagler, Dixie Flyer, and Georgian. The Memphis end of the proposed route was served by decidedly less glamorous accommodations, a set of coach- and sleeper-only schedules simply labeled “Night Trains.”

The Florida trains were part of a virtual “alphabet route” between Chicago and Florida that included the Chicago & Eastern Illinois from Chicago to Evansville, Ind.; Louisville & Nashville from Evansville to Nashville; NC&StL east to Chattanooga and Atlanta; and south from Atlanta one time or another over Atlanta, Birmingham & Coast, Atlantic Coast Line, and Florida East Coast.

In childhood, I witnessed these trains numerous times from the vantage point of tiny Alvin, Ill., north of Danville, home to my grandfather and great-grandfather, both of whom were C&EI tower operators. At that age I wouldn’t have known anything about their connections in the South, caught up as I was in the drama of blue-and-orange E7s and sparkling stainless-steel cars going all out at 79 mph. Now I’m intrigued by the possibility that passenger trains could return to the fabled “Dixie Line,” especially over NC&StL’s gorgeous mountain territory east of Nashville via ancient Cowan Tunnel.

Speaking of breathtaking mountain scenery, here’s a vote for bringing back the North Coast Hiawatha, the long-distance train Amtrak ran in Chicago-Seattle service until 1979. Although it basically followed the route of today’s Empire Builderas far as Minneapolis, beyond there it was very much a revival of Northern Pacific’s beloved North Coast Limited, at least in spirit. Over the years Amtrak trains 9 and 10 bounced back and forth between daily and triweekly service and never quite matched the Builder in popularity, but you couldn’t argue with the scenery, thanks to their fabled traversals of Homestake Pass and Bitterroot Mountains.

Not even scenery or local political pressure were enough to save the North Coast Hiawatha, and it got caught up in a plan to cut 12,000 route miles from the Amtrak system. The last editions of the train departed Seattle and Chicago on October 7, 1979.

The loss of the North Coast Hi really stung for me, as I’d lived in Milwaukee in 1974-76, often saw the train coming through town, and frequently reminded myself “hey, man, you better ride this while you have a chance.” I kept putting it off, of course, and blew the opportunity. I’ve ridden the Builder many times, but, in a historical context, always considered NP’s North Coast Limited to be a more interesting train. Maybe it was that lovely two-tone green paint scheme designed by Raymond Loewy, or its vaunted Montana scenery, or just the fact the train took a more meandering route to the Pacific Northwest.

Of all the services that might come back, the North Coast Hiawatha might have the best chance. Since 2020, a multi-county group in Montana called the Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority has been pushing for the train’s return, touting the fact that it would serve Missoula, Billings, Bozeman, and Butte, arguably more of a true “corridor” than the Builder’sroute. I’ve got my fingers crossed.