A new Amtrak service will connect North Carolina and Chicago, starting Nov. 10, but it won't be a fast trip.
Passengers who board the Floridian at Raleigh's Union Station at 9:08 a.m. will arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 8:45 a.m. the next morning. The train will stop along the way in Richmond, Washington, D.C., Pittsburgh, and Cleveland.
North Carolina passengers can also hop on in Cary, Rocky Mount, Southern Pines or Hamlet. Amtrak offers coach seats, roomettes and bedrooms. Dining car and café services are also offered.
The Floridian is part of Amtrak's plan to divert trains from New York, so it can rebuild a 100-year-old tunnel underneath the East River. What was originally a northbound route will now head west from Washington so Amtrak can work on each of the tunnel's four tubes. Amtrak's Silver Meteor service will continue to operate between Miami and New York, with several stops in North Carolina.
The arrival of the Floridian comes as North Carolina continues to invest in inter-city passenger rail. Over 342,000 people rode the state-supported Raleigh-to-Charlotte service in the first half of 2024 — a 20% increase over the same period in the previous year, according to NC By Train.
“Just on our regular services between Raleigh and Charlotte, and Charlotte and New York every day, we've seen a 38% increase in growth since 2019,” said Jason Orthner, director of passenger rail for the North Carolina Department of Transportation.
In June, NCDOT operated a first-of-its-kind train service to the U.S. Open golf tournament in Pinehurst. The state also broke ground on a project that will shorten travel times between Raleigh and Richmond.
Meanwhile, the city of Charlotte recently purchased a freight rail line for a new commuter service to Iredell County.
