The proposed Amtrak service between Dallas, TX and Meridian, MS has been talked about for at least 20 years. It seems that CP is now willing to move this forward.

I’m not sure what it would be called, since it would use the Meridian Speedway, why not the Meridian Speedster?

I’ve tried to consider what the schedule for such a service would look like. If one considers the two services to be connected to, the Texas Eagle in Dallas, and the Crescent in Meridian, just what would be the benefit for either of these existing trains?

The following are the current schedules for each, north and south bound:

Meridian NB 1:32P
Meridian SB 4:13P

Dallas NB 3:20P
Dallas SB 11:30A

The other variable to be consider is the total time for the service. By car you can get from Meridian to Dallas on I-20 in 8 hours. With station stops and potential freight congestion I couldn’t conceive of any time less than 12 hours. Potentially 15 hours.

So what then would be the goal for either a passenger from Meridian or Dallas to connect to another Amtrak service? My thinking is that the more valuable connection would be a Dallas-Meridian passenger connecting to the Crescent headed to New York. This would require the Speedster arriving well before the 1:32P departure out of Meridian. This would require the Speedster leaving Dallas either at midnight or well before. It would be an overnight service. (Mississippi Owl, Tri-State Owl?)

The connection of this train seems problematic to me. And I don’t see adjusting the schedules too much of either the Texas Eagle or the Crescent for a better match.

Not all Amtrak passenger services currently make perfect connections. That’s ok.

Personally, I’m excited about the prospect of this train. I hope that it does start soon. I will be looking forward to traveling on the otherwise rare trackage, particularly the Mississippi river crossing at Vicksburg.

There are many items to be addressed, infrastructure in each of the towns for some type of station, be it a shed on the side of the track or an actual building that maybe exists now but needs a bit of refurbishment. Freight congestion…

And finally, I’d assume this will be Viewliner equipment if Amtrak can spare a trainset or two. Hopefully we won’t have to wait on the new equipment just being bid out.

From Mississippi, and our sister states, Louisiana, and Texas, we deserve this service. It is overdue.

Steve