America: Land of the Train Again!?: A Ramble about the Corridor ID Program | How We Get Around

America's passenger rail sector has a reputation for barely existing in many parts of the country. Since Amtrak's inception in the 1970s, it has been besieged on all sides by forces seeking its demise, while its attempts at expansion have been haphazard and without a cohesive strategy. That's all changed now.

Last month, the FRA's Corridor ID Project has released its choices for support for the year, and lists a ton of new route that are going to be researched further for future service. On top of that, research into expanding Amtrak's current services to new cities are also on the cards, and two mega-grants going towards several projects including the long-beleaguered but steadfast California High Speed Rail project and the soon to begin construction Brightline West high speed rail project. Rail service is a seriously desired thing in a lot more places now, including some you may not expect. Let's go over (i.e. ramble) about the proposed services, and where we may see great rail service once again.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
2:27 California High Speed Rail
10:38 Brightline West
13:04 S-Line
15:02 Second Long Bridge
16:42 Second Pennsylvanian Round-Trip
18:25 Extensions to Current Services (The Ramble Begins)
1:07:17 The Corridor ID Routes
2:12:23 Conclusion and Opinions

[thetrainguy]

Scranton Service needs to happen!!

The only route that will be completely publicly owned.

Also wonderful video. As a Amtrak Engineer. We want this! We want more trains, to more places. We want everyone to travel with us (maybe not everyone 😅). In the most civilized way to travel.

[trevorthefoamer]

Columbus Resident here, it's been 45 years since we've had Amtrak service, and right now we're actually one of the largest cities without it, we're actually the largest city with no rail at all, including transit. So to have a governor thats actually supportive of rail expansion, gives me a lot of hope for our state. It says a lot because one of our previous governors turned down $400 million, because he thought the service was stupid.

Also the other state without Amtrak other than Wyoming is South Dakota :)

[himbourbanist]

Getting Amtrak to Alaska is bold and sorely needed. The Alaska Railroad service is more of a tourist train but a lot of rural communities do get service to major population centers on it, but it's borderline prohibitively expensive for many people. Land is cheap in Alaska and Amtrak should make plans to lay their own electrified ROWs now and get the cities connected by reliable trains sooner rather than later. Plus think of all the connections to protected natural spaces like Denali! They could even coordinate getaway trips with the hospitality industry and do Denali National Park vacation packages or something; I would take that up in a heartbeat

[gonzoengineering]

Green Bay is home of the National Railroad Museum and it's just absurdly American that there is no way to get to there by rail

[cobalt]

Glad to see people are putting the map i made for High Speed Rail Alliance to good use!

[davidnissim]

I'm from the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Francisco is probably the largest city that doesn't have Amtrak service. The nearest Amtrak stops are in Oakland (a half hour bus ride or ferry ride across the Bay) or San Jose (an hour south, fortunately it's connected to SF by commuter rail). There's been talk about rebuilding an old abandoned rail bridge across the Bay for possible Amtrak use, but nothing's ever come to fruition.

[SkyeEEPY]

I love this detailed long format analysis, I'd love to see more into how America is finally competing with the rest of the world in rail service!

[TheTonyk]

Still hoping for the 10th largest metro in the US and 90 miles from NYC, the Lehigh Valley, to get their act together next year and actually make progress in getting passenger rail! PennDOT, the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, and Norfolk Southern have all completely sucked here and should frankly be completely & utterly embarrassed by Scranton's & Reading's success.

[rockinrandy]

As a rural Ohio resident (Near what would be a proposed Amtrak stop at Newcomerstown, OH), I’d LOVE THIS. it would allow me to take the train to Chicago, and then a train to Galesburg to see my friend who lives in the QC area. Saves me from driving, and I know a lot of people in the area that are actually looking forward to this route becoming a reality.

Also, I’m hoping the Cleveland stop moves back to Tower City, rather than the little Amtrak station right off Route 2 across from the stadium. It would allow for people to directly exchange from the Amtrak train to the Rapid (Cleveland’s Rapid Transit System) and go to the airport (and Berea!). It would be so nice to see Amtrak come to Tower City.

One thing I would wish for but would not probably happen is a route from Cleveland to Charleston WV via Akron, Canton, Cambridge OH, and Parkersburg and Ravenswood WV. It wouldn’t have a lot of popularity (maybe running by Athens for Ohio University would benefit it) but it would allow a connection for people living in SE Ohio to get to other places in the state without the need for cars. More north-south routes in the state would maybe be more beneficial (Detroit - Lexington via Toledo, Dayton, and Cincinnati, and Toledo - Parkersburg via Findlay, Marion, Columbus, Lancaster, Athens, and Marietta) again, all speculation and hopes but it would make getting around the state a lot easier, and frankly more fun.

All in all, Ohio is ready for more rail service, and maybe Iowa can follow suit, as I’m looking to move there in the next couple of years.

[spacepeanut]

The Ronkonkoma service will almost certainly be operated by dual-mode Airo trainsets when those start arriving in ~2026. Probably actually one of the easier services for them to start up once those are acquired.

[ptorq]

St. Joseph MO is associated with two things that people on the national level may have heard of: it's where Jesse James was shot, and it's the former eastern end of the Pony Express mail route. It's the 8th largest city in Missouri, but I suspect the plan is that the KC/StJo portion of the route will primarily serve commuters who live in St. Joseph and commute to work in Kansas City and there probably won't be THAT many people who want to go from Chicago to St. Joseph specifically.

[statelyelms]

Dude, this is like a fever dream. This is what I gave up on ages ago and only recently started to have an inkling of stubborn hope for. It is, literally, a dream come true. Real, proper progress! Finally!

Now if only Canada would follow suite, dammit.. VIA Rail need much more funding to expand service and add new necessary yet presently absent routes outside of the main corridor.

[tux_the_astronaut]

Another thing im excited about for North Carolina is the expansion of amtrak service to ashville NC. In the past years railroads have been disappearing in the western half of the state and i hope that Amtrak will bring the return of rail traffic and better transportation in the mountains /western half of the state

[FreeJaffa]

I’ve got a conspiracy theory:
The only reason Amtrak wants to go to Long Island is to build the catenary themselves force the LIRR to get rid of its third rail🥴.

[tspryaviation]

As a San Diegan, I'd love to see the Coast Starlight extended to San Diego and a new long-distance train to Chicago utilizing the old SD&AE railway going thru Northern Mexico and El Centro then connecting to UP's network in El Centro over the extension of the Surfliner to San Ysidro (and I do agree the Surfliner needs to be more reliable) Those routes would be cool as taking the unreliable Surfliner to LA from San Diego to go long distance via Amtrak is a pain.

[stupidkid]

The Lackawanna cut off in North West New Jersey is being rebuilt. The first part which is being rebuilt by New Jersey Transit is going from Port Morris to Andover New Jersey. And the missing 21 miles will come into play when Amtrak gets involved. It made it into the top 15 for the corridor ID program.

[Yvonne-Bella]

THANK i can't STAND the idea of the San Joaquin being discontinued because of CAHSR!!! I take that train whenever i can to Fresno to see my Grandma and thought about how the line connects smaller areas that hsr wont and how much of a shame that would be if they cut it.

It really should stay with hsr being Express like you said

[hirampriggott]

Amtrak's biggest hurdle is operating on the ROWs owned by the freight companies like UP, BNSF, KCS, CSX, NS. They cause delays. The Sunset Limited between Florida and Texas is the biggest problem.

[cornkopp]

The delaware line will provide some much needed train service in the MD eastern shore as well. A train from the state capitol to ocean city may still be a pipe dream for now, but Salisbury is one of the largest cities on the peninsula, and is home to Salisbury University which is a major public university in the region. Extending any sort of train service to the city will be a good start, and could potentially drum up support for more delmarva rail service.

[markrud]

A few thoughts about the North Coast Hiawatha, centering on Montana:

1. The route would run on Northern Pacific trackage, not the old Milwaukee Road, which unfortunately is almost entirely abandoned in Montana. Big Sky Passenger Rail Authority (a legal subdivision of the state) is working closely with BNSF on this route since it just resumed operations of the Montana Rail Link section this year.

2. In my view, one of the most exciting parts about this service restoration is the potential for augmented routes at either end. At the east, the route could form the proposed Chicago-Madison-Eau Claire-Twin Cities service. At the west, the route could restore service to Central Washington by taking its original Spokane-Pasco-Yakima-Seattle route over Stampede Pass. While service would likely be only once per day each way, using those routes as a long distance service opens them for future state supported passenger services. (The lack of a Seattle to Central WA & Spokane route is absurd.)

3. The biggest open question in Montana is which route it takes between Bozeman and Missoula. Pipestone (Milwaukee Road’s route) is long abandoned; BNSF‘s Homestake Pass trackage has been out of service for decades, and aerial images show at least one section of rockfall over tracks; so in either case, Butte would be a spendy route to reestablish. On the other hand, Helena, while making more sense for intrastate ridership as the capital, has to tackle Mullan Tunnel at the continental divide, which is apparently quite a bear and highly trafficked. Curious to see how it pans out, especially since Helena’s county refuses to join the Authority. (Same with Billings’ county, which would be rewarded with a stop anyway despite its obstinance.)

4. A similar choice plays out with multiple options between Missoula and Paradise, MT: either up a steep grade toward CSKT’s Bison Range and the Flathead River, or what appears to be a longer but mostly downgrade/downstream route along the Clark Fork past St. Regis. Pros and cons for each, but stunning views are inevitable for lucky riders.