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In the United States, inter-city trains are operated by Amtrak over a nation wide network. The most heavily used routes with the greatest ridership and schedule frequencies are in the Northeast Megalopolis and the Chicago metropolitan area. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in the New York City metropolitan area.
The two busiest passenger rail stations in the United States are Penn Station and Grand Central Terminal, which are both located in New York City, and which serve three of the four busiest commuter railroads in the United States (the LIRR and New Jersey Transit at Penn Station, and Metro-North Railroad at Grand Central Terminal). The commuter railroads serving the Chicago area are Metra and the South Shore Line. Another notable commuter railroad system is Boston's MBTA Commuter Rail, the fifth busiest in the U.S. (after only New York, New Jersey, and Chicago area systems) with a daily weekday ridership of 130,600 as of Q4 2011. It serves the Greater Boston metropolitan area, and extends as far south as Wickford, Rhode Island.
Alaska Railroad provides passenger service with the state of Alaska. In contrast to Amtrak, the train schedules are seasonal in nature.
In Canada, inter-city trains are primarily operated by Via Rail over the railroad network that's largely owned by Canadian National Railway. Most of the travel occurs within the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. Ontario Northland Railway and Algoma Central Railway provides passenger rail service throughout northern Ontario, reaching areas that are difficult to reach by road. Tshiuetin Rail Transportation provides passenger rail service throughout western Labrador and northeastern Quebec. Keewatin Railway Company provides passenger service in in Northern Manitoba, between The Pas, and Pukatawagan.
Commuter rail outside of Washington D.C., New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, Montreal, and Toronto metropolitan areas are more infrequent and less extensively used.
Read more about this topic: Commuter Rail In North America
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