Illinois Central , leads the
City of New Orleans at
Kankakee, Illinois in August 1964. The
Illinois Central Railroad introduced the original
City of New Orleans on April 27, 1947. It was a daytime, all-coach companion to the overnight
Panama Limited, which had been all-
Pullman for most of its run.
EMD E7 diesel locomotives pulled new lightweight
Pullman Company coaches. The route, which the
City of New Orleans covered in 15 hours 55 minutes, was the longest daytime schedule in the United States. The
City of New Orleans exchanged
St. Louis—New Orleans
through cars at
Carbondale, Illinois and
Louisville—New Orleans cars at
Fulton, Kentucky. The average speed of the new train was nearly with a maximum of ; a result of the largely flat route of the Illinois Central along the
Mississippi River. By October 25, 1959, the timetable had lengthened to 16 hours 30 minutes. The train remained popular throughout the 1960s and gained ex-
Missouri Pacific Railroad dome coaches in 1967. Inauspiciously, the
City of New Orleans was involved in
Amtrak's first fatal derailment on June 10, near
Salem, Illinois. Because this train made no connections with other trains at either New Orleans or Chicago, Amtrak moved the train to an overnight schedule on November 14, 1971, and renamed it the
Panama Limited. In February 1981, Amtrak restored the
City of New Orleans name while retaining the overnight schedule; Amtrak hoped to capitalize on the popularity of the
song written by
Steve Goodman and recorded in 1972 by
Arlo Guthrie. A
Kansas City section, the
River Cities, began operation on April 29, 1984. It separated from the
City of New Orleans at
Centralia, Illinois (later Carbondale) and ran to Kansas City via St. Louis. This section ended on November 4, 1994. The northbound
City of New Orleans began stopping at
Gilman, Illinois, on October 26, 1986. Gilman had last seen service in 1971; the
Illini stopped there as well. Service to
Cairo, Illinois, south of Carbondale, ended on October 25, 1987. Amtrak operated the
City of New Orleans reliably through the 1980s and into the 1990s; in 1992, the
City of New Orleans had the highest on-time performance rate of all Amtrak services at 87%. Nevertheless, on-board service had declined;
Trains magazine editor J. David Ingles called the train "Amtrak's least-glamorous long-distance train". On March 3, 1994, new
Superliner cars replaced the single-level cars. Real dining service returned; by the early 1990s an
Amfleet dinette had doubled with the lounge car. . On September 10, 1995, the train was rerouted between
Memphis and
Jackson due to the Illinois Central's desire to abandon the original route (the Grenada District) in favor of the newer and flatter Yazoo District. Five towns in the
Mississippi Delta lost service–
Batesville,
Grenada,
Winona,
Durant, and
Canton. On March 15, 1999, the
City of New Orleans collided with a flatbed semi-trailer near
Bourbonnais. Of the 217 people aboard the train, eleven people were killed in the
Bourbonnais train accident. The fourth car, where the fatalities occurred, was engulfed in flames following the collision at the crossing. Because of damage in Mississippi and Louisiana due to
Hurricane Katrina, Amtrak was forced in late August 2005 to truncate the
City of New Orleans at
Memphis, Tennessee. Service was first restored as far south as
Hammond, Louisiana, and on October 8, 2005, Amtrak resumed service to New Orleans. In December 2005
Arlo Guthrie, who helped popularize the song "
City of New Orleans", led a fundraiser aboard the
City of New Orleans and at several stops along the train's route to help in the hurricane recovery efforts. The train began stopping at
Marks, Mississippi, on April 4, 2018, following the completion of a
new station. Starting October 1, 2019, traditional dining car services were removed and replaced with a reduced menu of 'Flexible Dining' options. From October 1, 2020, to May 31, 2021, daily service was reduced to three trains per week due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
Proposed expansion In 2016, Amtrak released a study on bringing passenger rail to the Gulf Coast that recommended extending the
City of New Orleans to Orlando, Florida along trackage once traversed by the
Sunset Limited but unserved since
Hurricane Katrina. The
Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency Program (CREATE) is in the preliminary design phase for the Grand Crossing Project. This project will reroute the
Illini,
Saluki, and
City of New Orleans trains from CN's tracks to
Norfolk Southern's
Chicago Line in the
Greater Grand Crossing neighborhood in Chicago. This will eliminate a time-consuming
switchback on the St. Charles Air Line into Chicago Union Station. In 2023,
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport began seeking federal funding for a
people mover linking the airport to a new station serving the planned
New Orleans–Baton Rouge passenger rail service, as well as the
City of New Orleans. ==Route details==