Here's another one of those questions I have long wondered about but never really got a good answer. At the formation of Amtrak most name trains that survived retained their names given to them by the private carriers. I know there were some exceptions to this but many famous names survived. As for SCL operated trains, Amtrak chose to retain the Silver Star, Silver Meteor, and Champion but appears the South Wind was dropped in favor of the "Floridian", a name not used by any passenger train at the time. The only time I can find a name close to "Floridian" was the "Floridan" that operated from 1922 until 1942 between Chicago and Florida via IC/CG/ACL/FEC.

My question is this: Why did Amtrak drop the "South Wind" and use the "Floridian"??? Was this change immediate or did the "South Wind" name survive for a few months/years???

Just seems strange that they would use several off the ACL/SAL/SCL but drop another.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Bryan Smith

-- Bryan Smith (bsmith3608@aol.com), November 30, 2002

Answers

And it's also possible Amtrak was worried that historically, the traveling public associated "South Wind" with service that didn't operate seven days a week.

-- Chuck Till (ctill@nc.rr.com), December 02, 2002.

The November 1971 Amtrak timetable was the first one that had the new Floridian name. Whether it was actually changed before then but after the previous Amtrak timetable (July 1971), I don't know. Amtrak may have changed the name since before the Amtrak takeover (May 1971), the South Wind had been downgraded and was no longer a through Chicago-Florida train. Amtrak restored it to a through train and may have wanted to signal this improved service via the name change.

-- Larry Goolsby (LGoolsby@aphsa.org), December 02, 2002.

The first "Amtrak" timetable, May 1, 1971 used on the SCL (It looks like a SCL Timetable) has a schedule for the South Wind. I am not sure when "Floridian" was used and why.

-- Jim Coviello (jcovi60516@aol.com), December 01, 2002.