Auto-Train Corporation's new service began operations on December 6, 1971. The "Auto-Train" was immediately popular with the traveling public and at first enjoyed financial success as well. In FY 1974 the company turned a profit of $1.6 million on revenues of $20 million. In May 1974 service began over a second route between Florida and Louisville, Kentucky, and the company was mulling additional service between Chicago and Denver. The Louisville extension proved to be the company's undoing. The decaying Louisville and Nashville Railroad track between Louisville and Florida (which also hampered Amtrak's "Floridian") hindered operations, and a pair of derailments stretched the company's finances to the breaking point. Service ceased in April 1981.