Amtrak - Amtrak Operations and Services

Amtrak Operations and Services

Amtrak is no longer required by law, but is encouraged, to operate a national route system. Amtrak has some presence in all of the 48 contiguous states except Wyoming and South Dakota. Service on the NEC, between Boston, Massachusetts, and Washington, D.C., as well as between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is powered by overhead electric wires; for the rest of the system, diesel locomotives are used. Routes vary widely in frequency of service, from three trips weekly on the Sunset Limited (Los Angeles, California, to New Orleans, Louisiana), to weekday service several times per hour on the NEC, (New York City to Washington, D.C.) Amtrak also operates a captive bus service, Thruway Motorcoach, which provides connections to train routes. In addition, the company owns Passenger Railway Insurance.

The most popular and heavily used services are those running on the NEC, which include the Acela Express and Northeast Regional. The NEC serves Boston, Massachusetts; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Baltimore, Maryland; Washington, D.C.; and many communities between. The NEC services accounted for 10.9 million of Amtrak's 30.2 million passengers in fiscal year 2011.

Regional services in California, subsidized by the California Department of Transportation are the most popular services outside of the NEC and the only other services boasting over one million passengers per annum. The Pacific Surfliner, Capitol Corridor and San Joaquin services accounted for a combined 5.47 million passengers in fiscal year 2011. .

Four of the six stations busiest by boardings are on Amtrak's NEC: New York (Penn Station) (first), Washington (Union Station) (second), Philadelphia (30th Street Station) (third), and Boston (South Station) (sixth). The other two of the top six are Chicago (Union Station) (fourth) and Los Angeles (Union Station) (fifth).

Many Amtrak trains have both names and numbers. Train routes are named to reflect the rich and complex history of the routes and the areas traversed by them. Each scheduled run of the route is assigned a number. Generally, even-numbered routes run northward and eastward, while odd-numbered routes run southward and westward. Some routes, such as the Pacific Surfliner, use the opposite numbering system, inherited from the previous operators of similar routes, such as the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway. Many NEC trains only have numbers.

These are the 15 busiest routes in the Amtrak system, ordered by region followed by ridership:

West Coast

  • Pacific Surfliner: San Luis Obispo – Santa Barbara – Los Angeles – San Diego
  • Capitol Corridor: Sacramento – Oakland – San Jose
  • San Joaquin: Oakland–Stockton–Bakersfield & Sacramento–Stockton–Bakersfield
  • Amtrak Cascades: Vancouver–Seattle–Portland–Eugene
  • Coast Starlight: Seattle–Los Angeles

Midwest

  • Hiawatha: Milwaukee–Chicago
  • Empire Builder: Chicago – St. Paul – Seattle/Portland
  • Lincoln: Chicago – St. Louis
  • Wolverine: Chicago–Detroit–Pontiac

East/Southeast

  • Silver Star: New York City – Raleigh – Tampa – Miami

Northeast

  • Northeast Regional: Boston/Springfield – New York – Philadelphia – Baltimore – Washington, DC – Virginia (either Richmond, Lynchburg, or Newport News)
  • Acela: Boston, MA – Washington, D.C.
  • Keystone: Harrisburg – Philadelphia – New York
  • Empire: Niagara Falls – Buffalo – Albany – New York
  • Downeaster: Brunswick–Boston

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