Passenger rail service in the US is woefully missing in comparison with different nations, notably long-distance service that connects far-reaching cities. Amtrak at the moment operates 15 long-distance routes, which vary from 750 to 2,500 miles. However they stretch over simply 39 states and the District of Columbia, and a map of these routes reveals that giant swaths of the nation don’t have any rail choices.
A new map, as a part of a current Federal Railroad Administration study, reveals what the nation may appear to be if 15 further long-distance routes had been added. With these rail traces, beforehand stranded areas of the nation are out of the blue linked with shiny traces representing passenger rail. They might make the nation’s rail community significantly fuller and would carry rail service to all the decrease 48 states.
These 15 potential new Amtrak routes would add greater than 23,000 rail miles to the system, serve greater than 60 new metropolitan areas, and supply rail entry to 39 million people who at the moment don’t have it.
The FRA examine on the potential growth of long-distance rail was delivered to Congress this week. As a part of the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Legislation, Congress directed the FRA, which oversees Amtrak, to conduct a examine that evaluated the potential of restoring routes, including new ones, and growing present service.
The FRA has been engaged on the report for the previous two years, conducting conferences in 21 cities throughout the nation, from Boston to Boise to Dallas. The company acquired greater than 50,000 feedback, from stakeholders like state transportation departments and Indian Tribes, in addition to members of the general public. That’s an indication, the FRA says, of the “overwhelming help for long-distance companies or passenger rail normally.”
Of their feedback, folks throughout the nation shared how they might use the brand new route choices to do every part from go to household to see nationwide parks to connect with job alternatives. Lower than 10% of riders on Amtrak’s present long-distance routes journey from end-to-end, the study notes, however what these routes do is join folks to all of the city and rural locations in between. Amtrak’s present Crescent route, for instance, connects New York to New Orleans—however consists of stops at greater than 30 stations in between, from Trenton, New Jersey, to Greensboro, North Carolina, to Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
The examine’s findings underscore the rising curiosity in practice journey that’s been sweeping the U.S. in recent times. Amtrak itself noticed record ridership in 2024, with new routes quickly surpassing expectations. Different rail firms have come into the fold, too, like Brightline, with its plans to develop high-speed rail choices.
However the potential new Amtrak routes are removed from a positive factor. The choices that the examine outlines are “conceptual,” the FRA says, and extra work is required to refine the tasks and decide their prices and funding sources, plus no matter else it might take to really implement them. A number of the routes have existed beforehand, however had been closed due to an absence of funding. Restoring them would absolutely be a funding problem once more. “At present,” the examine reads, “there isn’t any sustained monetary help or program to assemble or function the chosen most popular route choices.”
A few of that funding may come from an FRA program, or from states and personal stakeholders working with Amtrak. It’s additionally not clear what this Congress, or the brand new administration, will consider the report. Although President Donald Trump, whereas on the marketing campaign path, lamented the fact that the U.S. didn’t have bullet trains, specialists say his presidency could reduce financial support for transit tasks total.