Whenever someone laments about the state of passenger trains in the US, they often recall that before Amtrak, there were many more passenger trains. Check out where these trains went on the day before Amtrak began service.
Green represents Northeast Corridor trains. Red represents daytime, short-haul trains while blue shows the routes of long-distance, overnight trains.
On April 30, 1971, there were approximately 191 daily passenger trains, operated by railroads which elected to join Amtrak. Five railroads declined to join, Denver & Rio Grande Western, the Georgia Railroad, the Reading Railroad, Rock Island Railroad, and the Southern Railway, but all eventually discontinued their trains by the 1980’s.
The Pennsylvania Railroad had extensive passenger service while the New York Central had significantly trimmed theirs. The Central had about 17 daily trains including just two long-distance ones. Some of their long-distance trains were converted into Chicago-Buffalo or New York-Buffalo day trains which cost significantly less to operate. In contrast, the Pennsy had about 50 daily trains including six long-distance ones, three of which competed with the Central on the New York-Chicago route.
Some corridors had multiple railroads serving the same market. Chicago-Milwaukee, Chicago-Minneapolis, and Chicago-Detroit. It was sensible to combine competing routes into a single line.
There were many more long-distance overnight trains than operate today. About 44 daily round trips operated overnight and some markets had multiple trains to choose from. New York-Chicago travelers had five trains, Chicago-Los Angeles passengers had three, and there were four New York-Miami trains. About 14 daily long-distance trains remain with no route receiving multiple trains.
The Northeast Corridor was a bit of a mess as it had many short-haul trains such as New Haven to Hartford or New York to Philadelphia. Combined with ancient ex-PR GG1 electric locomotives and unreliable Metroliners, plus decades of deferred maintenance, years would pass before operational profitability was achieved. At the time, planners thought that Northeast Corridor profits would subsidize the rest of the system but significant operational “profits “only materialized in the mid-2000’s and even then, some question whether Amtrak’s accounting system overstates Northeast Corridor “profits” at the expense of long-distance trains.
By 1971, most passenger trains had already disappeared, especially the small towns. However, most large cities retained passenger service. The largest city to lack service was Dallas although Fort Worth had service nearby. Of the 48 continental states, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and South Dakota had no service at all. Today, South Dakota still lacks service and Wyoming last saw service in the early 1990’s. Looking at major cities, Dallas and Austin now have train service but many more large cities have no service today.
Ten largest cities without passenger trains in 1971
- Dallas, TX 844,401
- Austin, TX 253,539
- Des Moines, IA 201,404 in 1970 Rock Island canceled service
- Shreveport, LA 182,064
- Knoxville, TN 174,587
- Huntsville 139,282
- Springfield, MO 120,096
- Columbia, SC 112,542
- Allentown, PA 109,871
- Manchester, NH, 87,754
- Phoenix, AZ 1,626,078
- Columbus, OH 879,170
- Nashville, TN 667,560
- Las Vegas, NV 648,224
- Louisville, KY 621,349
- Colorado Springs, CO 465,101
- Tulsa, OK 403,505
- Wichita, KS 390,591
- Lexington, KY 321,959
- Madison, WS 255,214
While many famous trains had disappeared long before Amtrak, about half disappeared with the creation of Amtrak. While a few routes have more trains than they did then, service along most of these routes is likely gone for good.
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