Arlo Guthrie is a prolific songwriter (and the son of maybe the more prolific songwriters), but he didn't write this one. "City Of New Orleans" was composed by the Chicago singer-songwriter Steve Goodman in 1970.Goodman wrote the lyrics on a sketch pad after his wife fell asleep on the Illinois Central train , where they were going to visit his wife's grandmother. Goodman wrote about what he saw looking out the windows of the train and playing cards in the club car. Everything in the song actually happened on the ride.After he returned home, Goodman heard that the train was scheduled to be decommissioned due to lack of passengers. He was encouraged to use this song to save the train, so he retouched the lyrics and released it on his first album in 1971.