History
See also: Texas Eagle (MP train)Amtrak's Texas Eagle is the direct successor of the Missouri Pacific Railroad and Texas and Pacific Railway train of the same name, which was inaugurated in 1948 and ultimately discontinued in 1970. The route of Amtrak's Texas Eagle is longer (Chicago to San Antonio versus St. Louis to San Antonio), but much of today's route is historically a part of the original Texas Eagle route. St. Louis to Texarkana and Taylor, Texas to San Antonio is over former Missouri Pacific Railroad trackage, while the Texarkana to Fort Worth segment traverses the former Texas and Pacific Railway.
The Eagle began on October 2, 1981, as a restructuring of the discontinued Inter-American, which had operated a daily schedule from Chicago to Laredo, Texas via San Antonio with a section to Houston, Texas which diverged at Temple, Texas. The new Eagle dropped the Houston section and cut back from Laredo to San Antonio. The new train carried Superliner equipment, replacing the Amfleet coaches on the Inter-American. In addition, the new train ran on a tri-weekly schedule with a through car on the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles, although the latter was not announced until the April 1982 timetable.
On November 15, 1988 Amtrak revived a Houston section, this time diverging at Dallas and running over the tracks of the Southern Pacific. It was the first time passenger traffic had served that route since 1958. Amtrak had intended to operate the Lone Star over this route back in the 1970s but dropped the plan in the face of obstruction from the Southern Pacific. With the change Amtrak revived the name "Texas Eagle" for the thrice-weekly Chicago-San Antonio/Houston train, while the off-day Chicago-St. Louis train remained the Eagle.
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