he Palmetto is a daily passenger train operated by Amtrak on a 829-mile route between New York City and Savannah, Georgia, along the eastern seaboard via the Northeast Corridor, Washington, D.C., Richmond VA, Fayetteville NC , and Charleston SC. The Palmetto's trip is a shorter version of the Silver Meteor, which travels the same seaboard route but continues south to Miami FL. In 1996 the service was renamed the Silver Palm to coordinate with the other two Silver Service Florida routes, but the Palmetto name was restored in 2002. Although currently a daytime train, in the past the Palmetto provided overnight sleeper service to Florida. The first iteration of the Palmetto was introduced by Amtrak in the summer of 1976 as a seasonal service, drawing its name from the state tree of South Carolina. Although the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad had operated a Palmetto Limited in the past, that route served eastern Georgia and was not a predecessor of Amtrak's new service. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, the Palmetto's schedule, termination cities, and coordination with other Atlantic coast trains were adjusted many times before the service was finally cut in 1995 due to national budget contraints. Service over the same route was later restored with the name Silver Palm, which included sleeping and dining car services and Florida destinations. However, by 2004 the sleeping and dining services had been dropped, the route had been truncated back to Savannah, and the name had been returned to the Palmetto. Today's daily trains essentially follow the same route as the first Palmettos in the 1970s. The typical consist includes one locomotive, one each of a Viewliner II baggage car and an Amfleet snack/lounge car, and 4-5 Amfleet I coaches (including a Business Class car) typical of the east coast regional trains. Except for the portion north of Washington on the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor, the Palmetto operates over CSX Transportation mainline trackage.