International

A Via RailEMD F40PH leads theInternational with AmtrakHi-Level andSuperliner coaches into East Lansing in 1996
Overview
Service type	Intercity rail
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Midwestern United States/Southern Ontario
Predecessor	Blue Water Limited
First service	October 31, 1982
Last service	April 23, 2004
Successor	Blue Water
Former operator	Amtrak/Via Rail
Route
Termini	Chicago,Illinois Toronto,Ontario
Stops	19
Distance travelled	502 mi (808 km)
Average journey time	10 hours 47 minutes
Service frequency	Daily
Train numbers	364, 365, 367 (Amtrak) 88, 85, 685 (Via)
On-board services
Class	Reserved coach
Catering facilities	On-board cafe
Technical
Rolling stock	Superliner coaches
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map Legend 0 mi 0 km Chicago Illinois Indiana 16 mi 26 km Hammond–Whiting Bypassed 2001 Indiana Michigan 89 mi 143 km Niles 102 mi 164 km Dowagiac 138 mi 222 km Kalamazoo 160 mi 257 km Battle Creek 208 mi 335 km East Lansing 238 mi 383 km Durand 256 mi 412 km Flint 274 mi 441 km Lapeer 319 mi 513 km Port Huron Michigan,U.S. Ontario,Canada 321 mi 517 km Sarnia 360 mi 579 km Strathroy 380 mi 612 km London Pre-1990 route 396 mi 637 km Ingersoll 405 mi 652 km Woodstock 432 mi 695 km Brantford 450 mi 724 km Dundas 459 mi 739 km Burlington West 470 mi 756 km Oakville 402 mi 647 km St. Marys 413 mi 665 km Stratford 439 mi 707 km Kitchener 453 mi 729 km Guelph 472 mi 760 km Georgetown 480 mi 772 km Brampton 487 mi 784 km Malton 502 mi 808 km Toronto This diagram: view talk edit

TheInternational (formerlyInternational Limited) was anamed passenger train operated betweenChicago andToronto. It was originally an overnight train operated by theGrand Trunk Railway of Canada and its successors theCanadian National Railway andGrand Trunk Western Railroad, running as far as Montreal. The train was cut back to Port Huron, Michigan, in 1970 and discontinued in 1971.

In 1982,Amtrak andVia Rail revived the route by extending Amtrak'sBlue Water Limited from Port Huron to Toronto. It was renamed as theInternational the next year. The service was initially successful but encountered numerous funding crises in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Substantial delays crossing the international border after theSeptember 11th attacks, combined with freight congestion and the2003 SARS outbreak, drastically reduced ridership. In 2004, the train was replaced with theBlue Water, which offered a better interstate schedule and higher reliability.

TheGrand Trunk Railway opened itsSt. Clair Tunnel betweenSarnia, Ontario andPort Huron, Michigan in 1891, completing the first direct all-rail route from Chicago to Toronto and Montreal.^[1][2] TheCanadian National Railway (CN) andGrand Trunk Western Railroad (GTW) introduced theInternational Limited on May 25, 1900. The train operated between Chicago'sDearborn Station and Montreal'sBonaventure Station via Port Huron, with the overnight section between Chicago and Toronto.^[3] The 844-mile (1,358 km) trip was originally scheduled for 22 hours and 52 minutes – an average speed of 36.9 miles per hour (59.4 km/h).^[4] The "premier train of the Grand Trunk Railway System", it was assigned numbers 1/2.^[5]

The Grand Trunk dropped all train names in 1907.^[3] In 1912, the Chicago–Montreal service was changed to numbers 14/15 to allow the Montreal–Prince RupertContinental Limited to receive numbers 1/2.^[5] TheInternational Limited name was restored in March 1919—the first GTW train to have a name since 1907.^[6] It remained the premier GTW train and received new equipment in 1929.^[6] After 1931, westbound trainNo. 15 was as much as 4.5 hours faster than its eastbound counterpart, which made local stops between Toronto and Montreal.[5]

The CN and theCanadian Pacific Railway (CP) began pooling equipment for their competing Montreal–Toronto services in 1933. The eastern half of theInternational Limited was jointly operated between the CN and CP; it included a CP through car, and train No. 15 departed from the CPWindsor Station.^[5] The train was split into Montreal–Toronto and Chicago–Toronto services – both carrying the same numbers – during pre-war service changes in 1939.^[5]Montreal Central Station replaced Bonaventure Station as the CN terminus in 1943.^[7]

In the 1940s, a typicalInternational Limited had three sleeping cars, abuffet lounge, a dining car, and three or more coach cars.^[8] By the 1960s, the lounge only operated west of Port Huron, and the dining car only to the east.^[9] TheInternational Limited was always the fastest Chicago–Montreal service; the westbound train made connections in Chicago to southern, western, and southwestern trains.^[5]

Until 1964, theInternational Limited was one of three daily Chicago–Toronto trips on the GTW, along with theInter-City Limited andLa Salle/Maple Leaf. GTW and parent company CN used aggressive marketing, inexpensive fares, and on-board perks like free meals to attract riders.^[10]East Lansing station opened as an experimental stop forMichigan State University and proved successful. However, the Grand Trunk was still losing "staggering amounts of money" running the service.^[10] The eastboundInter-City Limited was cut to Port Huron in November 1964, and cut entirely on October 29, 1967, along with theLa Salle when the Chicago-DetroitMohawk was added.^[10] In 1965, the pooling arrangement was terminated; in the ensuing rearrangements, only the Chicago–Toronto section (renumbered 155/156) retained theInternational Limited name.^[5]

TheInternational Limited was cut back to Port Huron on June 12, 1970, leaving theMaple Leaf (the westbound a 1966-renamedInter-City Limited) as the railroad's only Toronto train.^[10] The CN added local trains between Toronto andLondon, Ontario approximating the former schedule.^[5] TheInterstate Commerce Commission approved GTW plans in September 1970 to terminate the no-longer-internationalInternational, but a judicial order and the pending takeover of intercity rail service in the United States byAmtrak kept the service operating.^[10] Amtrak did not retain any of the six GTW trains (theInternational Limited,Maple Leaf, andMohawk).^[10] They made their last runs on April 30, 1971; theInternational Limited was the last intercity train to depart from Dearborn Station.^[11]

In 1974, Amtrak restored service over the GTW to Port Huron with theBlue Water (renamed theBlue Water Limited in 1975). AfterVia Rail took over Canadian intercity passenger services in 1978, Amtrak saw a chance to improve theBlue Water Limited's financial performance by extending it to Toronto. Talks between the agencies began in late 1981. Negotiations soon reached a stalemate; Michigan desired a later Sunday schedule so that weekend travelers to Toronto could return late in the evening, but Via did not. Michigan was also worried about losing day trips to Chicago; supported primarily by ridership west of East Lansing, theBlue Water Limited was Amtrak's most-used state-supported route with only one daily round trip.^[12]

The New York-TorontoMaple Leaf, introduced in April 1981, had proved an immediate success, and Amtrak and Via soon reached an agreement to extend theBlue Water Limited to Toronto as well.^[12] Via accepted the later Sunday train and agreed to share equipment for the route. Michigan funded a Flint-Battle Creek bus, which connected with the westboundWolverine and eastboundTwilight Limited, to preserve Flint-Chicago day trips.^[13] TheInternational Limited began operations on October 31, 1982, replacing theBlue Water Limited. In contrast to its predecessor, it used ex-Penn Central trackage west ofBattle Creek, Michigan—in common with Amtrak's other Michigan trains—and ran on a daylight schedule. On June 13, 1983, Amtrak renamed the train theInternational, which it carried until its discontinuance.^[14]

On January 15, 1990, Via moved theInternational off its original CN route to a more northerly route betweenLondon and Toronto. The new route enabled it to serviceKitchener, Ontario, but added an hour to its running time.^[14] There were also several never-enacted proposals to reroute the train within Michigan. A 1984 state plan would have run theInternational throughGrand Rapids; instead, the independentPere Marquette was started using funds saved by the startup of theInternational Limited and the discontinuance of theMichigan Executive.^[15] In 1995, during a funding crunch, Amtrak proposed routing theInternational through Durand, Pontiac, and Detroit, thus dropping Flint and Port Huron.^[14] In 2000, Amtrak proposed moving the train entirely to the Chicago–Detroit line later that year.^[16]Detroit station would have been skipped entirely; Amtrak would no longer have used state funds for theInternational, though they may have been used for a replacement Port Huron train instead.^[14] Neither proposal was ultimately enacted.

Beginning in the late 1990s, Amtrak services in Michigan suffered a series of funding crises. ThePere Marquette was reduced to four times a week in April 1995; that September, a state commission voted to reduce theInternational to quad-weekly to restore daily operation on thePere Marquette. The commission elected to keep the dailyInternational in January 1996; in 1997, the state and Amtrak agreed to an 18-month contract lasting through March 31, 1999.^[17] Despite an extension, Amtrak proposed to end the train on October 2, 2000. After negotiations proceeded well, the state approved $6.7 million on January 17, 2001, to continue funding for theInternational.^[18] With ridership falling, state officials were reluctant to pursue a long-term funding solution, instead opting for small extensions often by diverting other rail funds.^[19]

Until 2001, theInternational had a customs stop of about one hour, with U.S. officials conducting screenings on the train at Port Huron.^[17] After the September 11 attacks, security personnel were redeployed to theBlue Water Bridge, and U.S. Customs refused to continue on-board screenings. (On-board screenings continued on Amtrak's two of the three other border-crossing routes;Amtrak Cascades usespreclearance instead.) Westbound passengers had to be bussed with their luggage from Sarnia to Port Huron, costing Amtrak $27,000 a month.^[17] The security issues caused massive delays, even after on-board screening resumed on February 19, 2002, amid complaints from the state and both railroads. By this time, just 8 to 15 passengers crossed the border on a typical day.^[17]

Delays caused by the border crossing and freight congestion continued to erode ridership, as did the 2003SARS outbreak in Toronto. Ridership plunged from 125,126 in 1997 to just 88,045 in 2002.^[20] Amtrak suggested to Michigan that theInternational be truncated to Port Huron, which would allow for a more reliable trip on the formerBlue Water Limited schedule, restore connections in Chicago, and allow day trips to Chicago.^[17] With state agreement, the finalInternational ran eastbound on April 22, 2004, and westbound the next day (along with a Port Huron eastbound on theInternational schedule). On April 24, 2004, the Port Huron-ChicagoBlue Water began operation. Via retained a single daily Toronto-Sarnia round trip that was merged into itsCorridor service, but a planned Port Huron-Sarnia bus was never implemented.^[17]

In its early years, the train usually consisted of two or three coaches and a food-service / custom-class car combination. Amtrak and Via alternated equipment: Amtrak used diesel locomotives andAmfleet coaches, while Via usedLRCs and Tempo coaches. Equipment assignments and allocations frequently changed; after the Via equipment was sidelined due to winter conditions in 1985, only Amtrak cars were used. On August 10, 1988, Via began using nine LRC passenger cars with the tilt mechanism removed (making them compatible with Amtrak cafe cars) pulled byF40PH locomotives.^[21]

In November 1995, all trains began using four or five AmtrakSuperliner andHi-Level cars, pulled by Via F40PH locomotives. The F40PHs were not compatible with the newly installedIncremental Train Control System, so they were replaced with AmtrakP32-8WH locomotives late in 1999. TheHorizon Fleet was substituted beginning in 2000 to allow the Superliners to add capacity to western trains, andGenesis locomotives were used in the final years.^[21]

• Holland, Kevin J. (2001).Classic American Railroad Terminals. Osceola, WI: MBI.ISBN 9780760308325.OCLC 45908903.
• Sanders, Craig (2003).Limiteds, Locals, and Expresses in Indiana, 1838–1971. Bloomington, Indiana:Indiana University Press.ISBN 978-0-253-34216-4.
• Sanders, Craig (2006).Amtrak in the Heartland. Bloomington, Indiana:Indiana University Press.ISBN 978-0-253-34705-3.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toInternational (Amtrak train).

• 2004 timetable

• Named passenger trains of Canada
• Named passenger trains of Ontario
• International named passenger trains
• Former Amtrak routes
• Former Via Rail routes
• Canadian National Railway passenger trains
• Passenger rail transportation in Illinois
• Passenger rail transportation in Indiana
• Passenger rail transportation in Michigan
• Passenger rail transport in Sarnia
• Passenger rail transport in Lambton County
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• History of rail transport in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo
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