Texas Eagle

For the former Missouri Pacific train, see Texas Eagle (MP train).

The Texas Eagle is a long-distance passenger train operated daily by Amtrak on a 1,306-mile (2,102 km) route between Chicago, Illinois, and San Antonio, Texas, with major stops in St. Louis, Little Rock, Dallas, Fort Worth, and Austin. Three days per week, the train joins the Sunset Limited in San Antonio and continues to Los Angeles via El Paso and Tucson. The combined 2,728-mile (4,390 km) route is the longest in the United States and the second-longest in the Americas, after the Canadian.

Texas Eagle

Texas Eagle in Austin, 2011
Overview
Service type	Inter-city rail, higher-speed rail
Locale	Midwest and Southwestern United States (daily)
Predecessor	Inter-American
First service	October 2, 1981 (1981-10-02)
Current operator(s)	Amtrak
Annual ridership	294,439 (FY23) 16.2%
Route
Termini	Chicago, Illinois San Antonio, Texas or Los Angeles, California
Stops	43
Distance travelled	1,306 mi (2,102 km) (to San Antonio) 2,728 mi (4,390 km) (to Los Angeles)
Average journey time	30 3⁄4 hours (San Antonio to Chicago) 32 1⁄4 hours (Chicago to San Antonio) 61 3⁄4 hours (Los Angeles to Chicago) 65 3⁄4 hours (Chicago to Los Angeles)
Service frequency	Daily (tri-weekly to Los Angeles)
Train number(s)	21, 22 (to San Antonio) 321, 322 (to St. Louis) 421, 422 (to Los Angeles)
On-board services
Class(es)	Coach Class Sleeper Service
Disabled access	Train lower level, all stations
Sleeping arrangements	Roomette (2 beds) Bedroom (2 beds) Bedroom Suite (4 beds) Accessible Bedroom (2 beds) Family Bedroom (4 beds)
Catering facilities	Dining car (San Antonio-Los Angeles only), Café
Observation facilities	Sightseer lounge car (San Antonio-Los Angeles only)
Baggage facilities	Overhead racks, checked baggage available at selected stations
Technical
Rolling stock	GE Genesis Superliner
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Operating speed	55 mph (89 km/h) (avg.) 100 mph (161 km/h) (top)
Track owner(s)	UP, BNSF, CN
Route map Borealis, Empire Builder, and Hiawatha 0 mi Chicago 37 mi 60 km Joliet 92 mi 148 km Pontiac 124 mi 200 km Normal 156 mi 251 km Lincoln 185 mi 298 km Springfield 237 mi 381 km Carlinville 257 mi 414 km Alton IL MO Mississippi River 284 mi 457 km St. Louis Missouri River Runner to Kansas City 376 mi 605 km Arcadia Valley 453 mi 729 km Poplar Bluff MO AR 523 mi 842 km Walnut Ridge 560 mi 901 km Newport closed 1996 634 mi 1020 km Little Rock 677 mi 1090 km Malvern 694 mi 1117 km Arkadelphia 741 mi 1193 km Hope 774 mi 1246 km Texarkana AR TX Crescent to New York proposed 840 mi 1352 km Marshall 864 mi 1390 km Longview 912 mi 1468 km Mineola 991 mi 1595 km Dallas branch discontinued 1995 Heartland Flyer to Oklahoma City 1022 mi 1645 km Fort Worth 1051 mi 1691 km Cleburne 1125 mi 1811 km McGregor 1036 mi 1667 km Corsicana 1150 mi 1851 km Temple 1152 mi 1854 km College Station 1188 mi 1912 km Taylor 1223 mi 1968 km Austin 1247 mi 2007 km Houston 1253 mi 2017 km San Marcos Sunset Limited to New Orleans 1306 mi 2102 km San Antonio daily tri-weekly 1475 mi 2374 km Del Rio 1601 mi 2577 km Sanderson 1692 mi 2723 km Alpine Central Time Mountain Time 1910 mi 3074 km El Paso TX NM Rio Grande 1998 mi 3215 km Deming 2058 mi 3312 km Lordsburg NM AZ Mountain Time Arizona Time 2176 mi 3502 km Benson 2226 mi 3582 km Tucson 2312 mi 3721 km Maricopa Phoenix discontinued 1996 2477 mi 3986 km Yuma AZ CA Arizona Time Pacific Time Indio closed 1998 2622 mi 4220 km Palm Springs Southwest Chief to Chicago 2689 mi 4328 km Ontario 2696 mi 4339 km Pomona Coast Starlight to Seattle Pacific Surfliner 2728 mi 4390 km Los Angeles all stops are accessible

Prior to 1988, the train was known simply as the Eagle.

History

See also: Texas Eagle (MP train)

Amtrak's Texas Eagle is the direct successor of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Texas and Pacific Railway train of the same name, which was inaugurated in 1948 and ultimately discontinued in 1971. The route of Amtrak's Texas Eagle is longer (Chicago to San Antonio versus St. Louis to San Antonio), but much of today's route is historically a part of the original Texas Eagle route. St. Louis to Texarkana and Taylor, Texas, to San Antonio travels over former Missouri Pacific Railroad trackage, while the Texarkana to Fort Worth segment traverses the former Texas and Pacific Railway. The T&P merged with MoPac in 1982; in turn MoPac was acquired by Union Pacific in 1986.

The Eagle began on October 2, 1981, as a restructuring of the Inter-American, which had operated a daily schedule from Chicago to Laredo, Texas, via San Antonio since 1973. From 1979 onward, it operated a section to Houston, Texas, which diverged at Temple, Texas. The new Eagle dropped the Houston section, while its southern terminus was cut back from Laredo to San Antonio. The new train carried Superliner equipment, replacing the Amfleet coaches on the Inter-American. In addition, the new train ran on a thrice-weekly schedule with a through car on the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles, although the latter was not announced until the April 1982 timetable.

On November 15, 1988, Amtrak revived a Houston section, this time diverging at Dallas and running over the route of the Southern Pacific's Sunbeam. It was the first time passenger traffic had served that route since 1958. Amtrak had intended to operate the Lone Star over this route back in the 1970s, but dropped the plan in the face of obstruction from the Southern Pacific. With the change, Amtrak revived the name Texas Eagle for the thrice-weekly Chicago-San Antonio/Houston train, while the off-day Chicago–St. Louis train remained the Eagle. This section would be discontinued on September 10, 1995. On April 4, 2013, Amtrak opened a new station in Hope, Arkansas, the hometown of former U.S. president Bill Clinton. Arcadia Valley was added on November 17, 2016, serving Iron County, Missouri.

In August 2023, Amtrak approved construction of a new station in De Soto, Missouri for trains to stop at between St. Louis and Arcadia Valley.

COVID-19 pandemic

As part of Amtrak's response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in greatly depressed ridership, service was reduced to tri-weekly throughout the corridor October 11, 2020. In March 2021, Amtrak announced plans to return the Texas Eagle to its pre-pandemic schedule on May 24, 2021. However, the train began operating on a five days per week schedule in January 2022 due to a resurgence of the virus caused by the Omicron variant and remained so until March 2022.

Proposed changes

In the August 2009 issue of Trains, Brian Rosenwald, Amtrak's chief of product management, noted that the Sunset Limited might be replaced by an extension of the Texas Eagle to Los Angeles: "We projected the revenue and looked at the logistics, and with a little bit of rescheduling came to the conclusion that we can make this happen with the equipment we have, and the additional revenue the train earns will more than cover the increased operating costs". The move would restore a connection to the Coast Starlight in both directions, and move boarding in Maricopa and Tucson, Arizona, to civilized times. "We are putting a stake in the ground: Triweekly needs to disappear," Rosenwald said. While the route of the Sunset Limited would not be entirely replaced, the performance improvements listed explain what will happen:

• Conversion to daily Chicago–Los Angeles train
• Shortening of the schedule by 9 hours
• San Antonio–New Orleans stub service on a daily basis to connect with this train
• Use of the Diner-Lounge on the stub service

These changes would, in turn, create a through-car change similar to that of the Empire Builder. Such service would originate from Los Angeles and split at San Antonio, and vice versa from New Orleans.

Operation

Route

As of July 2022, the southbound Texas Eagle (train 21) departs Chicago 1:45 pm, running between Chicago and its first station stop in Joliet, parallel to the Illinois and Michigan Canal, along first the Canadian National's Freeport Subdivision and then Joliet Subdivision, which is also used by Metra's Heritage Corridor and Amtrak's Lincoln Service. From Joliet, the train travels along Union Pacific rails, often parallel to Interstate 55, making station stops in Pontiac, Bloomington–Normal, Lincoln, Springfield, Carlinville (a flag stop), and Alton before crossing the Mississippi River to make its stop at St. Louis' Gateway Multimodal Transportation Center, scheduled for 7:13 pm. After St. Louis, the train skirts the Ozark Mountains, stopping in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, before crossing the state line into Arkansas. In Arkansas, the train stops in Walnut Ridge, the state capital of Little Rock, and the stations at Malvern, Arkadelphia, Hope, and Texarkana, on the Arkansas–Texas border.

Continuing into Texas, the train makes station stops in Marshall, Longview (bus connection with Houston), Mineola, Dallas and Fort Worth, which has connections to Oklahoma City via Amtrak's Heartland Flyer, and from there the train travels on BNSF trackage. The train continues on, making stops in Cleburne, McGregor, Temple (where the train resumes traveling on the Union Pacific), Taylor, the state capital of Austin, and San Marcos, with a scheduled arrival into San Antonio at 9:55 pm (the next day). A sleeping car and a coach (designated internally as train 421) are conveyed to the Sunset Limited on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, departing San Antonio at 2:45 am.

The northbound Texas Eagle (train 22) leaves San Antonio at 7 am, splitting from the eastbound Sunset Limited (train 422) on Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. The train arrives in Chicago at 1:44 pm the next day.

Amtrak Texas Eagle route

Equipment

Amtrak P42DC #69 leading Texas Eagle #421 in Dallas Union Station

The normally assigned consist on the Texas Eagle includes:

• GE Genesis locomotive
• Superliner Sleeper
• Superliner Diner-Lounge (Cross Country Café)
• Superliner Coach

Three times a week, one coach and one sleeping car from the Texas Eagle are connected to the Sunset Limited and travel between San Antonio and Los Angeles as train #421/422. To provide extra capacity, an additional Superliner coach operates between Chicago and St. Louis as train #321/322.

The Eagle used to carry a Superliner Sightseer Lounge car. It was removed from the train in October 2020 in response to reduced demand from the Covid-19 pandemic but is expected to return sometime in 2025. Amtrak plans to replace the P42DCs with modern Siemens ALC-42 locomotives by 2027, and the Superliner cars with new long-distance cars by 2032.

Ridership

During fiscal year 2019, the Texas Eagle carried 321,694 passengers, a 4.2% decrease from 2018. In FY2016, the train had a total revenue of $22,323,171, an 8.5% decrease from FY2015.

Ridership by Fiscal Year (October–September)

	Ridership	Change over previous year
2007	218,321	-
2008	251,518	015.25%
2009	260,467	03.56%
2010	287,164	010.25%
2011	299,508	04.30%
2012	337,973	012.84%
2013	340,081	00.62%
2014	313,338	07.86%
2015	317,282	01.26%
2016	306,321	03.45%
2017	345,679	012.85%
2018	335,771	02.87%
2019	311,367	07.27%
2020	196,078	037.03%
2021	151,393	022.79%
2022	253,491	067.44%
2023	294,439	016.15%

References

• Goen, Steve Allen (1997). Texas and Pacific Color Pictorial. La Mirada, California: Four Ways West Publications. ISBN 1-885614-17-9.
• Runte, Alfred (2006). Allies of the Earth, Railroads and the Soul of Preservation. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press. ISBN 1-931112-52-5.
• Stout, Greg (1995). Route of the Eagles: Missouri Pacific in the Streamlined Era. Bucklin, Missouri: White River Productions. ISBN 0-9659040-3-2.

External links

• Official website
• Texas Eagle – Amtrak
• Texas Eagle timetable – July 18, 2022