The Country
Many people spend days, or even weeks, travelling across the US by car; why not do it by train instead?
Train Travel
Amtrak operate the national rail service, throughout the USA. There are also other commuter lines within the country that operate local services, generally based in big cities like New Jersey Transit and Metro North in New York, Metra in Chicago, Caltrain in San Francisco and Metrolink in Los Angeles. All have their own way of enticing customers to travel and ticketing types can be very different from one to the next.
A Full list of Commuter Rail Operators in the USA is available on Wikipedia. Each then links to the respective operator. A list of Light Rail Systems in the USA is also available.
Tourist trains operate in the USA such as at the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad in Springdale, Arkansas, the Adirondack Scenic Railroad in Utica, NY, and the White Pass & Yukon Route in Skagway, Alaska. See my reports on them all; Arkansas & Missouri Railroad (visited more than once so more reports available), Adirondack Scenic Railroad (visited more than once so more reports available) & White Pass & Yukon Route (visited more than once so more reports available).
A full list of Railroads in the USA along with a list of heritage railways in the USA, can be found on Wikipedia.
Train times and Tickets
Booking tickets for travel within the USA can be done at most Amtrak stations or online for long distance travel; beware that some Amtrak stations are completely unmanned!
Amtrak
From time to time Amtrak offer big discounts across all fares; these are definitely worth looking out for!
Downloadable PDF Timetables by Route – Full network timetables are available upon request at Amtrak stations
For the Rail Enthusiast
A comprehensive list of Locomotives in the USA by their respective railway system can be found at The Diesel Shop.
Simple maps of the US Rail Network, including some of the Class 1 Freight Railroads as separate maps are available online at mapsof world.com.
As the US rail system is so vast available comprehensive atlases are broken down into State volumes and are available from SPV as Railroad Atlases of North America.
Having not been to the US since the Metrolink BNSF Gala in California, I was really looking forward to this trip and had had the leave booked for it since the turn of the year. There’d been a lot of hype about the Illinois Railway Museum’s upcoming gala and the fact that there should be Read the Rest…
I almost didn’t take part in the Metrolink Diesel Gala of 2016 but a last-minute change of plan to an Eastern Europe trip had me hightailing across the planet from Warsaw to LA to mop up what would essentially be the dregs of the BNSF GE workings on Metrolink. 2 weeks before I would arrive Read the Rest…
This trip was specifically planned around doing the National Railroad Historical Society’s convention at the Arkansas & Missouri Railroad in Springdale; due to the fact that their would be at least five days of special trains, covering all of the A&M network, and all would be Alco hauled! We actually struggled a little to fit Read the Rest…
This trip had been chopped and changed so much it looked nothing like our original plan by the time we’d finished. The sole purpose, as always, was seeking out Alco’s and we managed to do the following: Adirondack Scenic Railroad Delaware & Ulster Railroad Delaware Lackawanna (courtesy of a Erie Lackawanna Dining Car Preservation Society Read the Rest…
This trip also encompassed some travel in Canada as well and was the start of a very long trip indeed, which encompassed no less than 13 flights, and ended in Malaysia, after a few days in Vietnam! The US part of the trip was all about Alco Locomotives on some of the US Shortlines, all Read the Rest…
Having spent a week in deepest darkest Arkansas doing railway related things our railway related things then took us on a journey across the USA from St Louis, Missouri, via Chicago, and ultimately to San Francisco. While the journey was marred a little by Amtrak’s late running it was certainly worth the while and some Read the Rest…
During part of a trip to the USA & Canada we stopped off at what i consider one of the most scenic parts of the world that I’ve ever visited, the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway in Alaska. This tourist railway runs from Skagway in Alaska to Carcross in Yukon, Canada. It travels a Read the Rest…