LAKE SHORE LIMITED

The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is a daily passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. The train runs between Chicago and New York City, with connecting service to Boston under the same name. Passengers heading to points in Massachusetts switch trains at Albany, New York (141 miles/227 km from New York), where the ''Lake Shore Limited'' continues its daily service along 199 miles (320 km) of track as far as Boston. The train, which rolls on routes formerly traveled by the famed ''20th Century Limited'', was previously operated by the New York Central (NYC) railroad between Toledo, Ohio and Chicago.

Contents

Train details

Naming

Route details

Station stops

External links

Train details

A typical train on the ''Lake Shore Limited'' route features a dining car, lounge car, coach, and three single-level Viewliner-class sleeper cars. Available accommodations include Reserved Coach seating, a Viewliner Roomette[1] ,
Viewliner Bedroom [2] ,
Viewliner Bedroom Suite (two connected Viewliner Bedrooms) ,
or a Viewliner Accessible Bedroom (for two adults -- a person with impaired mobility and a companion).
A typical train on the ''Lake Shore Limited'' route from Chicago to Albany looks like:

★ 2 P42 engines

★ 1 Heritage Fleet baggage

★ 3 Viewliner sleepers

★ 1 Rebuilt Heritage diner

★ 1 Amfleet II café

★ 4 Amfleet II coaches
At Albany, the train lays over for a short time, when Boston-bound passengers board a connecting train headed for Boston. The main consist switches the normal pair of P42 engines for a P32 with dual-mode capability, which will enable it to use the third rail into New York Penn Station. The Boston bound connecting train consists of a P42, an Amfleet cafe and three Amfleet coaches. The Lake Shore Limited full consist from Chicago then departs for New York City. The 2 P42s from Chicago are serviced at Albany-Rensselaer.

Naming

The route is named after Lake Erie, along which the train travels for much of the journey. Based on the route's current operating schedule, however, the train passes by Lake Erie during the night in both directions, making the lake difficult to see.
The ''Lake Shore Limited'' is jokingly referred to as the ''Late For Sure Limited'', the ''Late Shore Limited'', or "Train 48-Late" (riffing on its eastbound route number, "48") among railfans, as the line frequently runs significantly behind schedule. Of the five round-trip journeys it made between 8 January and 12 January 2006, according to Amtrak's ''Train Status'' webpage [3], the ''Lake Shore'' when running from Chicago was an average of 61 minutes late in arriving at Penn Station, with the longest delay being 2 hours and 23 minutes and the shortest being four minutes. In the opposite direction, the train was an average of 64 minutes late arriving in Chicago, with the longest delay being 4 hours and 10 minutes and the best arrival being 23 minutes early. The longest delay, as of August 8, 2006, is for Train 48 at 10 hours 43 minutes late.

Route details

The ''Lake Shore Limited'' between Chicago and New York City operates over the trackage of five railroad companies. From Chicago to Cleveland, the train rides the Chicago Line, which belongs to Norfolk Southern Railway. From Cleveland to Poughkeepsie, the ''Lake Shore'' rides on trackage belonging to the following CSX Transportation subdivisions: Cleveland Terminal, Erie West, Lake Shore, Buffalo Terminal, Rochester, Mohawk, Selkirk, and Hudson. From Poughkeepsie to the Bronx, the train operates on Metro-North Railroad's Hudson Line. And Amtrak tracks are used twice: between Hoffmans and Schenectady; and from the Bronx to Penn Station. The Albany-Boston extension runs on the trackage of several companies as well. The train travels on Amtrak's Post Road Branch from Rensselaer to nearby Schodack, from Schodack to Boston on CSX's Berkshire and Boston subdivisions, and from Framingham to South Station on track operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

Station stops

The ''Lake Shore Limited'' runs eastbound as Train 48 from Chicago Union Station to New York Penn Station, returning westbound as Train 49. Station stops (in eastbound order) include South Bend, Elkhart, and Waterloo, Indiana; Bryan, Toledo, Sandusky, Elyria, and Cleveland, Ohio; Erie, Pennsylvania; and Buffalo-Depew, Rochester, Syracuse, Utica, Schenectady, and Croton-Harmon, New York.
A section of the ''Lake Shore Limited'' runs eastbound as Train 448 from Albany-Rensselaer through Massachusetts with terminus at Boston South Station, returning westbound as Train 449. Station stops (in eastbound order) include Pittsfield, Springfield, Worcester, Framingham, and Boston (Back Bay Station), Massachusetts.

External links

★ Amtrak - ''Lake Shore Limited''

★ ''Lake Shore Limited'' - Route Guide

★ Shore Limited'' - Information