| Sunset Limited - welcome aboard!
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Texas Eagle Heartland Flyer Sunset Limited Missouri Service |
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Sister train to the Texas Eagle, Amtrak's Sunset Limited offers a complete train travel experience, with coaches, sleepers, lounge and dining car. It combines with the Texas Eagle in San Antonio and offers service three days a week to 20 cities between New Orleans and Los Angeles. "Sunset Limited" is one of the oldest name still associated with a running train. Amtrak inherited the train from the Southern Pacific Railroad; though this railroad is today part of the Union Pacific Railroad, the train's right of way is still called the "Sunset Route." The word "Limited" is an old passenger-railroad term from the days when trains were the primary mode of intercity travel. A "local" train would stop at every town along the route, while a "limited" would stop at a limited number of station. The original Sunset Limited had its eastern end point in New Orleans, Louisiana, because was the "end of the line" for the Southern Pacific. For its first 22 years as an Amtrak train, the Sunset Limited kept its Los Angeles-New Orleans route, but in 1993, Amtrak extended the Sunset east to Florida. For the first time in history, America had a true transcontinental train, operating thru service coast to coast. (Another remnant of the Sunset Limited survives in the magazine rack of your local bookstore. The popular lifestyle magazine Sunset began life as a promotional vehicle for the Southern Pacific and took its name from the Sunset Limited.) East of New Orleans, the Sunset Limited operates over tracks owned by CSX. Much of this right of way sustained heavy damage in Hurricane Katrina, and today the Sunset Limited temporarily operates only between New Orleans and Los Angeles, pending final determination by Amtrak senior management. |