Amtrak created the
Capitol Limited in 1981 as a Washington section of the Chicago–New York
Broadway Limited, with the split occurring in Pittsburgh. It became a fully separate train in 1986. The train gained bilevel
Superliner cars in 1994. Amtrak inherited the
Silver Star from the
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1971. Amtrak previously used the name
Floridian for
a Chicago–Miami service that ran from 1971 to 1979 via
Louisville, Kentucky,
Nashville, Tennessee, and
Montgomery, Alabama.
Trains magazine speculated in July 2024 that Amtrak intended to combine the two trains, based on "circumstantial evidence gleaned from Amtrak’s booking site." Amtrak confirmed this speculation on September 23, 2024, announcing the temporary merger of the
Capitol Limited and the
Silver Star. The new train, called the
Floridian, will use the entire route of the
Capitol Limited between Chicago and Washington, D.C., and the route of the
Silver Star between Washington, D.C. and Miami. The combined train will use single-level
Amfleet and
Viewliner cars from the
Silver Star and carry the train numbers 40 and 41, which were previously assigned to the and . Amtrak cited two reasons for the move: reducing the number of movements through the
East River Tunnels during planned reconstruction work, and meanwhile freeing up Superliner cars for use on Western long-distance trains. == Equipment ==