Serving Chicago, St. Louis, Little Rock, Texarkana, Dallas, San Antonio, and intermediate points
Amtrak train numbers: 21 and 22; Houston section 521 and 522; Los Angeles section 421 and 422
Predecessor railroad train numbers: See Inter-American
In 1988, Amtrak reintroduced Chicago-Houston train service in the form of a section of the Chicago-San Antonio Eagle, splitting from or combining with the train in Dallas and operating via College Station. To promote the new service, Amtrak gave the train the full name of its closest predecessor, the Missouri Pacific's Texas Eagle.
Two years later, the schedule was increased from three days a week to daily, then reduced back to the original 3-day-a-week service in 1993.
Due to budget cuts, the Houston section was discontinued in 1995, after the state of Texas turned down the opportunity to subsidize that portion of the run.
In the spring of 1997, due to more budget cuts, the Texas Eagle was almost discontinued, but was saved at the last minute mainly through the efforts of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas.
In 1998, the Texas Eagle's schedule was increased to four days a week, with the extra train running to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited's schedule under the name Texas Eagle California Service, while the through sleeping cars continued to be attached to the Sunset Limited on the other three days of the week.
Then, in 2000, the Texas Eagle returned to a daily schedule between Chicago and San Antonio, coinciding with the inauguration of the Heartland Flyer, providing a connection between Oklahoma City and Fort Worth. A year later, the California Service train was discontinued, leaving the three-day-a-week Sunset Limited connection.
Condensed historical timetables:
READ DOWN READ UP
(1989) (1994) (1999) (2002) (2002) (1999) (1994) (1989)
3:15P 5:45P 5:55P 3:30P Dp Chicago Ar 2:20P 2:45P 1:35P 1:30P
10:05P 12:15A 11:59P 9:10P St. Louis 8:40A 9:00A 7:35A 7:15A
5:13A 7:23A 7:27A 5:00A Little Rock 11:55P 12:49A 11:37P 11:27P
7:54A 10:04A 9:58A 8:10A Texarkana 9:13P 9:56P 8:47P 8:37P
1:00P 3:15P 2:56P 2:05P Dallas 4:10P 4:55P 4:05P 3:55P
7:15P 10:00P ----- ----- Houston ----- ----- 8:25A 8:45A
9:30P 11:40P 5:35A 11:45P San Antonio 7:30A 7:45A 7:05A 6:50A
----- ----- 4:37P ----- El Paso ----- 3:05P ----- -----
----- ----- 9:44P ----- Tucson ----- 7:35A ----- -----
----- ----- 7:10A ----- Ar Los Angeles Dp ----- 9:55P ----- -----
The Amtrak Train Names Project