The Shreveporter circa 1932.
(Author's Collection)
THE SHREVEPORTER
The Shreveporter was inaugurated by the Louisiana and Arkansas Railway (L&A) on December 30, 1928, as the road’s premier passenger train. It was launched at the end of 1928 under new management as Train No. 1 southbound and No. 2 northbound, and it quickly became known as the pride of the L&A. Its debut reflected the L&A’s ambition to offer a first-class, dependable service in northwest Louisiana and southwest Arkansas, linking its own territory to the larger national passenger network.
The train’s core route ran between Shreveport, Louisiana, and Hope, Arkansas, a relatively short but strategically important segment of the L&A system. At Hope, the Shreveporter connected with the Missouri Pacific Railroad, allowing passengers to continue north toward Little Rock and ultimately St. Louis. Its signature feature was a through Pullman sleeping car carried between Shreveport and St. Louis in conjunction with Missouri Pacific, so travelers did not have to change sleepers at the interchange. Intermediate service included points such as Minden, Louisiana, placing the train at the center of local travel between the Red River city and the Arkansas junction.
In the late 1930s the corporate landscape around the train changed dramatically. Interests led by Harvey Couch began buying Kansas City Southern Railway (KCS) stock in 1937, gained control of KCS in 1939, and merged the properties with KCS as the surviving corporation and the L&A as a subsidiary. The following year, on September 2, 1940, the combined system introduced a new diesel-powered streamliner, the Southern Belle, between Kansas City and New Orleans. The Southern Belle soon overshadowed the older train as the flagship, while the Shreveporter continued as the shorter Hope-to-Shreveport local connection.
Like most American passenger trains of its era, the Shreveporter eventually succumbed to declining ridership as automobiles, buses, and air travel drew passengers away. It was discontinued on January 24, 1962, ending more than three decades of service. Its end did not immediately end all passenger service on the former L&A, since the Southern Belle continued until 1969, but the loss of the Shreveporter marked the close of the L&A’s original named train and of direct overnight Pullman service on the Shreveport-Hope-St. Louis routing.