I’d read somewhere that Inland Route trains were largely for mail service with passenger service a smaller reason, and its reason for being kind of disappeared along with the USPS shipments. Can anyone confirm?
mtuandrew wrote:I’d read somewhere that Inland Route trains were largely for mail service with passenger service a smaller reason, and its reason for being kind of disappeared along with the USPS shipments. Can anyone confirm?You're thinking of the middle-of-the-night mail and express train that Amtrak ran for a number of years in the 1980s and 1990s between Boston and Washington, originally via Providence in both directions and later via Springfield on the southbound run. For much of its life it carried the classic name Fast Mail. Amtrak's daytime passenger train between Boston and NEC points south via Worcester and Springfield, usually carrying the name Bay State, was initially a state-supported run consisting of a GP9 with a couple coaches and then a pair of RDCs (in both cases making a connection witha Shore Line train at New Haven), and later a through train with the usual F40 and Amfleet. The day trains between Boston, New Haven, and points south via Springfield never carried mail.