Twilight Limited

Twilight Limited

Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail
Locale	Midwestern United States
Last service	April 25, 2004
Successor	Wolverine
Former operator(s)	Amtrak & New York Central Railroad
Route
Start	Chicago, Illinois
Stops	17
End	Pontiac, Michigan
Distance travelled	304 miles (489 km)
Average journey time	6 hours 20 minutes
Service frequency	Daily
Train number(s)	354 & 355
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend Dist. Station 0 mi  0 km  Chicago Illinois Indiana 16 mi  26 km  Hammond–Whiting 52 mi  84 km  Michigan City Indiana Michigan 89 mi  143 km  Niles 102 mi  164 km  Dowagiac 138 mi  222 km  Kalamazoo 160 mi  257 km  Battle Creek 184 mi  296 km  Albion 205 mi  330 km  Jackson 243 mi  391 km  Ann Arbor Greenfield Village 273 mi  439 km  Dearborn 281 mi  452 km  Detroit 292 mi  470 km  Royal Oak 296 mi  476 km  Birmingham, MI 304 mi  489 km  Pontiac

The Twilight Limited was a named passenger train in the United States which initially operated between Chicago, Illinois, and Detroit, Michigan. The New York Central Railroad introduced the train in 1926, and it continued until the formation of Amtrak (the National Railroad Passenger Corporation) in 1971, although it lost its name in 1967. Amtrak renamed the train St. Clair, feeling that the name "Twilight Limited" had undesirable connotations and imagery for a company trying to save passenger rail service. Amtrak revived the name in 1976 for a new train frequency on the Chicago–Detroit corridor, and kept the name until all trains on that corridor were renamed Wolverine in 2004.

History

New York Central

The New York Central Railroad introduced the Twilight Limited on April 25, 1926. The new train was first-class only, with parlor cars and a dining car. It was the fastest of the 13 New York Central (Michigan Central) trains from Chicago to Detroit, leaving Central Station at 3:00 PM and taking six hours for 283.5 miles to Detroit. After the Second World War the Twilight Limited gained coaches, but kept some parlor cars and its dining car. Service on the Chicago-Detroit route continued to drop, from seven trains each way in 1951 to five in 1960. The last parlor car came off in the mid-1960s. As part of a massive restructuring the New York Central dropped all train names on December 3, 1967, although the ex-Twilight Limited still ran. Penn Central (the merged New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroad) truncated the westbound ex-Twilight Limited at Ann Arbor, Michigan on October 5, 1968. Amtrak kept the eastbound ex-Twilight Limited (No. 356), but renamed it the St. Clair.

Amtrak

By mid-1976 Amtrak had three round-trips on the Chicago-Detroit corridor; these were all named Turboliner after the French-designed gas turbine RTG trainsets which operated on the route. Demand outstripped the trainsets' fixed capacity of 292, so Amtrak began assigning new conventional Amfleet equipment as it became available. On October 31, 1976, the evening pair of trains (#354/#355) became the Twilight Limited. This service pattern remained mostly uninterrupted until 1994, although budget problems led to the westbound Twilight Limited running tri-weekly (Friday-Sunday) between 1986 and 1990. On May 5, 1994 Amtrak extended the Twilight Limited and Wolverine to Pontiac, Michigan. In 2000, as part of its Network Growth Strategy Amtrak proposed extending the Twilight Limited to New York City, New York via Ontario, Canada and Buffalo, New York, bypassing Detroit. The last Michigan-Ontario-New York had ended in 1979 when Amtrak discontinued the Niagara Rainbow. Nothing came of this proposal, although for a time the Twilight Limited terminated at Detroit and handled additional mail and express business. On April 26, 2004 Amtrak dropped individual names on the Chicago-Detroit corridor and the Twilight Limited (along with the Lake Cities (Amtrak train)) became one of three Wolverines.

External links

• 1976 timetable