United States

Country Details

See Wikipedia

National Railway System

The United States rail network has a complex mix of infrastructure ownership and passenger train operation. Most of the infrastructure is owned by private companies - principally BNSF, CSX, Norfolk Southern, and Union Pacific - which operate freight services only. Passenger services are provided by various public-sector bodies. The federal operator, Amtrak, runs long-distance and other inter-city trains, and local services are run by various state operators. Amtrak and some other operators also own parts of the infrastructure on which they run.

Infrastructure

There is a fairly consistent basic infrastructure standard for all main-line operators (i.e. not metros / light rail):

• gauge: standard
• electrification: none (but see Northeast Corridor below)
• rule of the road: right, but with extensive bi-directional operation

Variations are noted against individual operators.

Northeast Corridor

The Northeast Corridor is the main line linking Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Washington DC. Due to a complex ownership and construction history, the Northeast Corridor electrification has three different systems:

• Boston - New Haven (Connecticut): 25kV 60Hz AC
• New Haven - New York: 12.5KV 60Hz (includes Metro-North branches in Connecticut)
• New York - Washington: 12kV 25Hz (includes Philadelphia - Harrisburg, and SEPTA lines around Philadelphia)

Some NJ Transit branch lines connecting with the Northeast Corridor have 25kV 60Hz electrification.

Maps

• Printed: Steam Powered Video publish a series of rail atlases covering the United States.

Information

• The Man in Seat 61 site has a useful guide to train travel in the United States, including summary timetables and ticket details.
• Summary timetables for Amtrak and some other services are available in some editions of the European Rail Timetable.
• A real-time interactive map and other information for many "commuter rail" operators (and other transit services) is available at PantographApp. Note that this does not include Amtrak services.

Amtrak

The main source of information is the website.

Map

Amtrak provide an interactive map, and also a PDF map: on the Routes & Destinations page, click the "National Route Map" button

Timetable

• Journey planner: on the website front page
• Online timetables: Amtrak no longer provides timetable PDFs. The Rail Passengers Association publishes unofficial timetables in a similar format, created from Amtrak data.
• Printed timetable: it is not known whether Amtrak still publishes a paper timetable. The compilers would welcome updates.

There is an archive of old Amtrak timetable PDFs, both official and unofficial, and other resources, at juckins.net.

Engineering Information

See Service Alerts & Notices.

Real-time Information

• On the Amtrak website front page, click the "Train Status" button to check individual trains by origin/destination or by train number
• A real-time interactive map of Amtrak (and VIA Rail) trains is available on the TransitDocs website. Click on individual trains to view their details.

Other Railways

Information for operators within individual states, including metro and light rail systems, is broken down by state:

State	Status
Alabama	only Amtrak service
Alaska	see state page
Arizona	see state page
Arkansas	see state page
California	see state page
Colorado	see state page
Connecticut	see state page
Delaware	service provided by Amtrak and SEPTA only - see Pennsylvania
District of Columbia (DC / Washington city)	see state page
Florida	see state page
Georgia	see state page
Hawaii	see state page
Idaho	only Amtrak service
Illinois	see state page
Indiana	see state page
Iowa	only Amtrak service
Kansas	only Amtrak service
Kentucky	only Amtrak service
Louisiana	see state page
Maine	only Amtrak service
Maryland	see state page
Massachusetts	see state page
Michigan	see state page
Minnesota	see state page
Mississippi	only Amtrak service
Missouri	see state page
Montana	only Amtrak service
Nebraska	only Amtrak service
Nevada	see state page
New Hampshire	only Amtrak service
New Jersey	see state page
New Mexico	see state page
New York	see state page
North Carolina	see state page
North Dakota	only Amtrak service
Ohio	see state page
Oklahoma	only Amtrak service
Oregon	see state page
Pennsylvania	see state page
Rhode Island	service provided by Amtrak and MBTA only - see Massachusetts
South Carolina	only Amtrak service
South Dakota	no rail passenger service
Tennessee	see state page
Texas	see state page
Utah	see state page
Vermont	only Amtrak service
Virginia	see state page
Washington (state)	see state page
West Virginia	only Amtrak service
Wisconsin	see state page
Wyoming	no rail passenger service

Note that some states do not have Amtrak service: Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, Wyoming.

The US territory of Puerto Rico is listed separately; the territories of American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, and U.S. Virgin Islands have no railways.

Tourist Lines

See Wikipedia

Obscure and Sparse Passenger Services

See PSUL: World Beyond Europe