Silver Service

This article is about passenger train service. For the form of table service, see silver service.

Silver Service
The Silver Meteor passing Odenton station in 2014
Overview
Locale	United States East Coast
Transit type	Inter-city rail
Number of lines	2
Website	Amtrak Silver Service
Operation
Operator(s)	Amtrak
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
System map Northeast Corridor to Boston New York City Empire Corridor Hudson River NY NJ North River Tunnels Newark Penn Trenton Delaware River NJ PA Keystone Service, Pennsylvanian Philadelphia–30th Street PA DE Wilmington DE MD Baltimore Capitol Limited to Chicago MD DC Washington, D.C. Potomac River DC VA Alexandria Cardinal, Crescent Northeast Regional Fredericksburg Richmond Staples Mill Road Northeast Regional to Newport News Petersburg Northeast Regional to Norfolk Silver Star until 1986 VA NC Henderson Rocky Mount Raleigh Cary Carolinian and Piedmont to Charlotte Southern Pines Fayetteville Hamlet NC SC Florence Camden Kingstree Columbia Charleston Denmark Yemassee Savannah River SC GA Savannah Silver Meteor until 1979 Jesup Thalmann St. Marys River GA FL Jacksonville Silver Palm (1996–2002) Waldo Palatka Ocala DeLand Wildwood Auto Train to Sanford Winter Park Orlando Dade City Kissimmee Lakeland Winter Haven Tampa Sebring Silver Meteor section until 1984 Okeechobee Clearwater West Palm Beach St. Petersburg Delray Beach Deerfield Beach Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Miami Miami (SAL) (until 1978) Miami Intermodal Center Planned All current stations are accessible

Amtrak Silver Service map

Silver Service was a brand applied by Amtrak to its long-distance trains running along the United States East Coast between New York City and Miami, Florida. It comprised two trains – the Silver Meteor and Silver Star. Since November 2024, the Silver Star has been temporarily combined with the Capitol Limited to form the Floridian, a Chicago–Washington–Miami route. The Silver Service brand was subsequently quietly discontinued for an indefinite period at the same time.

The two services follow the same general route between New York City and Miami, but diverge between Selma, North Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia, as well as at Auburndale, Florida. The Silver Meteor takes a more direct, coastal route on the CSX A-Line between Selma and Savannah via Fayetteville, North Carolina, Florence, South Carolina, and Charleston, South Carolina, while the Silver Star travels inland over the CSX S-Line to serve the Carolinas' two state capitals, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina. At Auburndale, Florida, the Silver Star continues west to service Lakeland and Tampa, while the Silver Meteor turns south to go directly to Miami.

Amtrak's Palmetto operates over the Silver Meteor's route between New York City and Savannah. However, from 1996 to 2002, the train was known as the Silver Palm and ran all the way south to Miami, though over a different routing between Jacksonville and Auburndale. The Palmetto name was reverted in 2002, and service was eventually truncated back to Savannah in 2004.

History

The two Silver Service trains were inherited from the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, which originally inherited them from the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, when Amtrak took over most intercity rail service in 1971. They are the sole remnants of numerous long-distance trains that ran between the Northeast and Florida for most of the 20th century. Amtrak originally applied the Florida Fleet brand to the Silver Meteor, Silver Star, and the now-discontinued Champion, another train inherited from SCL, in the 1970s.

Prior to 1979, the Silver Meteor travelled between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida, via the Seaboard Coast Line's ex-SAL Everett Subdivision with a stop at Thalmann, Georgia, for the nearby city of Brunswick, Georgia. The train was rerouted via SCL's ex-ACL mainline via Jesup, Georgia, in late 1979, the same route as the Silver Star, after SCL expressed desire to abandon the Everett Subdivision. Similarly, the Silver Star ran between Petersburg, Virginia, and Raleigh via the ex-SAL Norlina Subdivision, with a stop at Henderson, North Carolina, until 1985. When CSX Transportation, corporate successor of Seaboard Coast Line, abandoned the line between Petersburg and Norlina, North Carolina, in 1985, the Silver Star was rerouted via Selma en route to Raleigh. Currently, under the Southeast High Speed Rail Corridor plan, the Norlina Subdivision will be rebuilt between Petersburg and Norlina, with both the Silver Star and Amtrak's Charlotte–New York Carolinian being rerouted over the line, with the stop at Henderson being reinstated, as well as a new stop being added at La Crosse, Virginia.

Starting in 1982, Amtrak operated a service called the Silver Palm between Miami and Tampa. This was later discontinued in 1985 due to low ridership. From 1996 to 2002, the Palmetto was renamed Silver Palm, and operated as a third train in the Silver Service brand between New York and Miami. However, it turned west at Jacksonville and ran via Waldo, Ocala, Wildwood, Dade City, Tampa and Lakeland, before rejoining the Silver Star and Silver Meteor in Auburndale. Amtrak reinstated the Palmetto name on May 1, 2002, after eliminating the sleeper and dining cars, but it still provided service to Florida. On November 1, 2004, the Palmetto was shortened to operate only between New York and Savannah, reverting to its daytime schedule as it had before 1994. Since then, the Silver Star began its out-and-back detour route to serve Lakeland and Tampa.

In response to planned rehabilitation work in the East River Tunnels, the Silver Star was temporarily combined with the Capitol Limited on November 10, 2024, forming a Chicago–Washington–Miami through service called the Floridian.

See also

• Silver Comet

External links

Template:Attached KML/Silver Service

KML is from Wikidata

• Official site