Ted and Sylvia Blishak write

the Leisure Rail column for

Passenger Train Journal

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Information below is reprinted by permission of the publisher, White River Productions, Inc.  www.whiteriverproductions.com

GrandLuxe Rail Journeys has reinstated a popular seven-day Antebellum South journey between Washington, D.C., and New Orleans, with various stops including Savannah and Charleston. Departures will be on selected dates in March and April 2008. Sightseeing will include visits to plantations and Civil War sites.
As announced in the previous PTJ, the company introduced a new program, called the GrandLuxe Limited, with cars attached to regularly schedule Amtrak trains. Seven-car consists will be piggybacked behind Amtrak's California Zephyr, Southwest Chief, and Silver Meteor on selected dates in October, November, and December 2007. Sleepers, galley, dining car, and a lounge car will be private, as Amtrak passengers will not have access to the GLL from inside the train.

Although GLRJ received many calls about this, some prospects wanted to embark and disembark at intermediate stations. This would have required double stops as the extra-long combined Amtrak/GLL train exceeds the length of most platforms. Amtrak, while giving the endpoint-to-endpoint GLL scheme their enthusiastic support, will not add multiple stops that would put the trains behind schedule. GLRJ, like Rocky Mountaineer Vacations in Canada—or a cruise line—sells completely packaged vacations, rather than offering fragments to their guests.

This restriction caused bookings to be lower than GLRJ expected. The plan was ambi¬tious, with dozens of departures scheduled for an untried product. By September, a number of departures were cancelled.
GLRJ offered guests under deposit on the cancelled departures $200 per person off on other GrandLuxe Limited trips, or a regular GrandLuxe week-long journey, on a spaceavailable basis. If guests cannot reschedule, they will receive a full refund plus a $100 change fee towards airline tickets they may have purchased.

Existing departures, as well as itineraries for the Antebellum South trips, are available at www.GrandLuxeRail.com, or ask your travel agent for an updated brochure.