Lake Shore Limited

The Lake Shore Limited is a daily 959-to-1,017-mile (1,543 km) passenger train route operated by Amtrak in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. The train runs between Chicago, Illinois and Albany, New York, where it divides into two sections that provide through service to New York City and 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.

During fiscal year (FY) 2011, the Lake Shore Limited carried about 387,000 passengers, a 6.2% increase over FY2010. The train had a total revenue of $30,701,576 during FY2011, an increase of 11.5% over FY2010.

History
The Lake Shore Limited is named after one of its illustrious predecessors that ran on the famed Water Level Route of the New York Central. Like the present day Lake Shore Limited, the New York Central edition offered service between New York and Boston and Chicago, although the New York Central used LaSalle Street Station. The New York Central annulled the Lake Shore Limited in 1956, as part of a system-wide reorganization. Service over the Water Level Route continued until the formation of Amtrak.

Amtrak did not include service over the New York Central's Water Level Route in its original route plan; Chicago–New York traffic would be handled by the Broadway Limited which operated over the Pennsylvania Railroad's main line via Pittsburgh. Between May 1971 – January 1972 Amtrak operated the Lake Shore over the route with support from the state of Ohio. The modern Lake Shore Limited began running October 31, 1975 with both New York and Boston sections.

The Lake Shore Limited was the last train to use the decaying Buffalo Central Terminal, departing on October 28, 1979. Since then it has used Buffalo–Depew.

Possible future
In the January 2011 issue of Trains Magazine, this route was listed as one of five routes to undergo improvement evaluation by Amtrak in FY 2011, just as the previous five routes (Sunset, Eagle, Zephyr, Capitol, and Cardinal) had been examined in FY 2010.

Amtrak published its Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) for the Lake Shore Limited in September 2011. Amtrak outlined two initiatives for improving the performance of the train:
 * Operations: Amtrak proposed moving the Lake Shore Limited to an earlier eastbound departure time from Chicago. It currently departs at 9:30 PM, to facilitate connections from oft-late West Coast trains. The improved departure time would add $2 million in yearly revenue.
 * Club-Diner: The dining car on the Lake Shore Limited would be converted to a so-called "Club-Diner". It would stay open during the entire journey, instead of just during set meal times, and would cease accepting cash. The existing lounge/cafe car would upgrade its offerings to include salads and sandwiches previously introduced on the Acela Express. Amtrak's desired goal was to bridge a perceived intermediate gap between the existing cafe offerings and the higher-priced fare in the diner.

Amtrak considered more radical changes to the operations of the Lake Shore Limited, including a re-route over the Chicago–Detroit Line, but rejected them.

Operations
A typical Lake Shore Limited features both Boston (numbers 448/449) and New York (numbers 48/49) sections, which run combined between Chicago and Albany. The New York section includes a baggage car, Heritage Fleet dining car, two Viewliner sleeping cars, an Amfleet II Cafe car, and four (sometimes five) Amfleet II coaches. The Boston section has its own baggage car, one Viewliner sleeping car, two (sometimes three) coaches, and an Amfleet cafe car. During the 2000s and 2010s the Lake Shore Limited carried either a Horizon Fleet or Amfleet lounge car. Between November 2007 and December 2009, maintenance problems led Amtrak to withdraw the Heritage diners and substitute Amfleet Cafe-based diner-lites, a move that became a source of passenger displeasure and a liability for the route, as the Heritage cars could prepare fresh food on board. Amtrak's only Viewliner-type Dining Car, the Indianapolis #8400, is assigned to Lake Shore Limited service.

At Albany, the train splits into its Boston and New York sections. Low demand and cost-cutting led Amtrak to drop through service to Boston between 2003 and 2008; passengers made a cross-platform transfer to a shuttle train. The New York section uses a single dual-mode P32 for third-rail power in Pennsylvania Station. West of Albany power is provided by two or three GE Genesis P42DC or P40DC diesel locomotives, which continue on to Boston.

As of February 2014, a typical consist has been: two P42 locomotives, Heritage baggage car, Viewliner sleeper, two Amfleet II coaches, Amfleet II Cafe (Boston & New York sections split here), four Amfleet II coaches, Amfleet II cafe, Heritage or Viewliner diner, two Viewliner sleepers, Heritage baggage car. This train is Amtrak's longest consist.

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 Hoffman 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 Worcester on CSX's Berkshire and Boston subdivisions, and from Worcester to South Station on track owned and operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA).

There is a short distance of trackage between Albany and Schenectady that allows for 110 mph operations. Delays to trains 448 and 449 are common due to the high amount of freight traffic between Albany and Worcester. Also, trains 448 and 449 operate on mainly single-track railroad.

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

Service to Poughkeepsie, New York began on November 8, 2010.

In FY 2010, only fifteen percent of passengers traveled between endpoints (Chicago and Boston or New York), although those travelers contributed 27 percent of ticket revenue. The majority (85 percent) of passengers traveled to and/or from intermediate stations. Passengers making connections with Amtrak’s Western long-distance and Midwest corridor trains in Chicago accounted for a significant portion of the Lake Shore Limited’s ridership and revenues.

In the late 1990s Amtrak considered adding Dunkirk, New York, as a stop between Buffalo and Erie. Dunkirk was listed as a stop with service "to commence on a date to be announced" on several timetables, but the stop was never added.

Amtrak also examined restoring the Lake Shore Limited stop at Hammond-Whiting, Indiana, a station 15 miles southeast of Chicago that has a large parking lot and is located in a predominantly industrial area some distance from population centers. The Hammond-Whiting station has a single platform that accesses only one of the three adjacent tracks of Norfolk Southern’s main line from Chicago to the East. The number of Amtrak trains stopping at Hammond-Whiting was reduced in the early 2000s due to low ridership and the operational impediments associated with the need to route all trains stopping at the station via the single track that accesses the platform. In 2002, the last full year that the Lake Shore Limited served Hammond-Whiting, it carried 3,498 passengers to or from that station, an average of five per train stop. While Amtrak’s ridership models indicated that reinstitution of the Hammond-Whiting stop would generate additional ridership, stopping additional trains at Hammond-Whiting would be difficult from an operating perspective and the associated impacts could not be justified by anticipated ridership.