new freight cars, to be used on high-speed trains offering reduced running times compared to earlier equipment. This allowed the railroad to remain competitive in the face of competition from the Interstate highway system. Passenger The ACL's passenger traffic consisted almost entirely of Florida-bound traffic, largely from the Northeast, but also from the Midwest via trains that were operated by multiple railroads and handled by the ACL at their southern ends. In 1939, in response to the Seaboard's popular new streamliner, the Silver Meteor, the ACL launched its first streamlined train, the all-coach Champion. ACL invested heavily in its passenger fleet after World War II but passenger revenue fell from $28.5 million in 1946 to $14.1 million in 1959. Until its 1967 merger the railroad continued to maintain and improve its passenger service, even replacing old stations with new. Major passenger trains All of ACL's New York - Florida trains ran on the Pennsylvania Railroad north of Washington, D. C., then via the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad from Washington to Richmond. Tampa/St. Petersburg trains used ACL rails south of Richmond all the way to their destinations. Trains for Miami ran on the Florida East Coast Railway from Jacksonville to Miami, but after passenger service on the FEC effectively ended with a long-lasting strike in 1963, ACL transferred its Miami-bound trains to Seaboard rails at Auburndale, Florida. New York-Florida routes: Champion (New York - Tampa/St. Petersburg, and New York - Miami) Everglades (New York – Jacksonville) Florida Special (New York – Miami/St. Petersburg) (winter only; a rival to Seaboard's Orange Blossom Special) Gulf Coast Special (New York – Tampa/Ft. Myers/St. Petersburg) Havana Special (New York – Key West, prior to the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.) Miamian (Washington – Miami) Vacationer (New York – Miami) Midwest-Florida routes: City of Miami (Chicago-Miami) Dixie Flagler (Chicago-Miami) Dixie Flyer (Chicago-Miami; shortened in final four years to Atlanta-Jacksonville) Dixie Limited (Chicago-Jacksonville) Flamingo (Cincinnati-Jacksonville) Seminole (Chicago-Jacksonville) South Wind (Chicago-St. Petersburg/Miami) Southland (Cincinnati -- St. Petersburg/Ft. Myers/Miami; sole year-round passenger train to bypass Jacksonville and run through the western side of Florida) Other routes: Palmetto (New York – Savannah, S.C./Augusta, Ga./Wilmington, N.C.) Tar Heel (New York and Norfolk -Wilmington) In popular culture In Preston Sturges' 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story, main character Gerry Jeffers (Claudette Colbert) boards the Florida Special (ACL's premier, winter-only train) in New York City's Pennsylvania Station. See also List of Atlantic Coast