CLEVELAND, Ohio — Starting in November, Northeast Ohio passengers will be able to board an Amtrak train in Cleveland and stay in the same seat all the way to Orlando, Tampa and Miami.
Amtrak announced this week that it is temporarily combining two existing routes, including the Capitol Limited, which currently runs from Chicago to Washington, D.C., via Cleveland, and the Silver Star, which runs from Washington to Miami.
The new route will be called the Floridian and will fly from Chicago to Miami beginning November 10.
The entire journey will take 46 hours 29 minutes.
The trip from Cleveland to Orlando will take 32 hours and 13 minutes. Stops along the way include Richmond, Virginia; Raleigh, NC; Columbia, SC and Jacksonville, Florida.
Tickets are on sale for the daily service, which will depart Cleveland at 1:54 a.m. That's the same time the Capitol Limited currently stops in Cleveland heading east.
The cost of a seat on a bus to Orlando starts at around $180.
Currently, passengers in Cleveland must change trains in Washington, D.C. to travel to Florida.
The route also stops in Elyria, Sandusky, and Toledo in Ohio.
The new route will use single-tier Viewliner cars, with coach and first-class seats, roomettes and bedrooms with private toilets and showers.
The train will also have a traditional dining car, serving chef-prepared meals (for first class passengers this meal will be included in the ticket, while for others it will be extra).
The combination of the two routes is temporary, in order to ease traffic in New York, as the tunnels under the East River in New York City will be rebuilt as part of the upcoming East River Tunnel Rehabilitation Project.
The Silver Meteor will continue to operate daily between New York and Miami.
Amtrak previously offered a Floridian route, connecting Chicago to Miami, in the 1970s. But that train didn't stop in Cleveland.
Jim Matthews, president and CEO of the Rail Passenger Association, praised the new route.
“It’s been a longtime dream of our members to restore single-seat travel from the Midwest to Florida, and we’re thrilled that a new generation of American travelers will be able to experience this service for themselves,” Matthews said in a statement.
Read more:
Amtrak expansion in Ohio: What's next, and how soon will we be able to take the train to Columbus?