Train aficionados and Florida magnates will now have the chance to experience rail travel in the lap of luxury, after Amtrak announced that it will include West Palm Beach and Orlando as stops on its new GrandLuxe Limited service.
Passengers on the luxury service will be able to board and disembark on the overnight trip between Washington, D.C., and Miami at Orlando, West Palm Beach and Miami.
Seven GrandLuxe Rail Journeys cars, which can hold 47 passengers each, will be pulled behind Amtrak trains on its Silver Meteor route.
The well-heeled can step back into the sepia-tinged era of luxury rail travel, the domain of royalty, diplomats and glitterati.
Some of the frills include mahogany interiors, five-course meals, hotel-standard sleeping cars and even a lounge car where passengers with plush chairs and a pianist.
Christina Messa, Grand- Luxe’s vice president of marketing, said the additional stops were made in response to passenger demand.
“West Palm Beach is a very upscale part of Florida, which is a natural match there, and Orlando is also a major travel destination,” Messa said.
Messa said Amtrak is considering adding more stops, such as Ft. Lauderdale, before the service starts in November.
When the service was announced in May, passengers in the luxury cars were not going to be able to board or disembark anywhere other than Washington and Miami route, because of concerns that other train platforms would be able to accommodate the extra seven cars.
“We had to make sure which GrandLuxe cars were going to be running on this route and how long they are and to see if the entire train could fit on the platform in West Palm,” said Amtrak’s Marc Magliari.
Magliari said that if those concerns had not been resolved, trains would have had to stop twice to board and disembark all the passengers, which could have caused delays.
“As we share those rails with Tri-Rail, we can’t well be dawdling,” he added.
Prices will range from $789 to $1,299 per person for the two-day trip.