The Best Intercity Rail in the Americas - An Amtrak Overview: Episode 24

(or listen on YouTube)

Board single-file onto the United States' premier and only intercity rail network. Stainless steel coaches will take you across the country thrice per direction per day, and the Acela will get you around the Northeast faster than the highway system ever could. In the first of three installments about Amtrak, we talk about the behemoth that is Amtrak today and the broad range of services that they operate.

Correction: We conflated the Sunset Limited and the Southwest Chief. The Sunset Limited, not the Southwest Chief, runs "along the part of Mexico that America bought so it could run trains" (45:12). The Sunset Limited is also the one that serves Maricopa, about 25 miles south of Phoenix (45:25), while the Sunset Limited serves Flagstaff. Thank you, Martin from Patreon for pointing this out on the early access!

Timestamps

References & notes

  1. [1] MTA surpasses previous pandemic-era Sunday ridership record on New York City subway
  2. [2] TX: Astros parade surges Metro rail ridership to third-highest one day total ever
  3. [3] Wikipedia: Alaska Railroad
  4. [4] Wikipedia: Rail transportation in the United States ยง Passenger railroads
  5. [5] Amtrak: FY 2019 Company Profile
  6. [6] Wikimedia Commons: File:Amtrak System Map.svg
  7. [7] Wikipedia: List of Amtrak routes
  8. [8] Wikipedia: Amtrak
  9. [9] Britannica: Amtrak
  10. [10] Amtrak: How Amtrak Started in 1971
  11. [11] Wikipedia: Auto Train
  12. [12] Wikipedia: Acela
  13. [13] Amtrak: Historic Timeline
  14. [14] Trains: Amtrak's creation story: A nitty-gritty narrative about the origins of the National Passenger Railroad Corp.
  15. [15] American-Rails.com: Amtrak, The National Railroad Passenger Corporation
  16. [16] Amtrak's Long-Distance Trains: Brief History, Benefits, Infrastructure Challenges
  17. [17] Business Insider: The rise and fall of Amtrak, which has been losing money since 1971
  18. [18] Illinois Passenger Rail: Illinois & Amtrak