The company had been operating south from Chicago on most Thursdays and north from New Orleans on Sundays, and had accepted reservations through 2016. The final trip slated for New Years Eve ran instead on the Cardinal to Washington, D.C., Northeast Regional train No. 66 to Boston, and back to Chicago on the Lake Shore Limited, when last week’s flooding caused cancellation of the City of New Orleans between Carbondale, Ill., and Memphis, Tenn.
Iowa Pacific President Ed Ellis tells Trains News Wire, “At this point, we are not able to operate Pullman Rail Journeys’ regular service between Chicago and New Orleans, but we are hoping to come to an agreement with Amtrak to resume service.”
Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari confirms, “We do not have an agreement with Pullman Rail Journeys to operate its equipment on the City of New Orleans, but are open to further conversations.”
The service began in November 2012. Pullman’s plan was to run several times per week in each direction with up to five cars, which initially included a full-length dome car serving high quality meals. One-way pricing with meals included has ranged from as low as $600 for an upper or lower berth in a section to over $2,200 for two in a master room.
Running more than two cars, however, triggered the substantial extra cost of another locomotive, so more recently Pullman chose to limit capacity by operating a lounge observation car serving meals along with a second sleeping car. Most trips sold out or had very limited availability, as was the case in November and December.
Getting sleeping car space on Amtrak’s City of New Orleans has also been a challenge. A Trains News Wire analysis of southbound trips in November reveals that bedrooms are sold out on half of the dates and roomettes were unavailable on eight of the month’s 30 days. Amtrak assigns no more than one Superliner sleeping car with 13 roomettes and seven bedrooms (including a family room and accessible bedroom), with an additional four to eight roomettes available for sale in a transition sleeper if demand warrants.
Trains News Wire will be monitoring the situation for further developments.
