As
Sylvar said, the
City of New Orleans is operated by
Amtrak between
Chicago and
New Orleans - a route covering, in fact, more than 900 miles. Daily departures are entirely
Superliners, with coach,
sleeper,
dining, and lounge cars available. Regional cuisine is offered in the dining car, and for part of the year "Trails and Rails" tour guides from the
National Park Service are onboard giving presentations about the area going by outside the train. Movies and games are offered, and Hospitality Hour is available for
first class passengers. Within
Illinois, the train makes stops in Chicago, Homewood, Kankakee, Champaign-Urbana, Mattoon, Effingham, Centralia, and Carbondale, then enters
Kentucky for a stop in Fulton. In
Tennessee, the train stops in Newbern-Dyersburg and
Memphis, then within
Mississippi stops in Greenwood, Yazoo City,
Jackson, Hazlehurst, Brookhaven, and McComb. The route completes its run in
Louisiana with stops in Hammond and New Orleans. Amtrak offers connecting service via
motorcoach from Carbondale to
St. Louis, and from New Orleans to
Baton Rouge. Depending on departure and arrival cities, the trip can take anywhere from 2.5 hours to 19.5 hours for the full run. Rental cars from
Hertz are available in Chicago and New Orleans, which are also destinations for Amtrak Vacations packages.
Source: Amtrak's 2001 Travel Planner
Further information: http://www.patsweb.com/trainframe.htm