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Understand Amtrak routes and thruway connecting services across the USA. This video explains Amtrak’s train routes, how to plan journeys and buy tickets, and where you can and can’t go.
0:00 Amtrak maps overview/introduction
0:17 Amtrak map basics
1:24 Amtrak routes on the East Coast
2:26 NYC ⇆ Virginia Amtrak maps
2:45 NYC ⇆ North Carolina Amtrak maps
2:56 Amtrak’s website and maps
3:13 Amtrak maps in the Northeast
3:52 Coast to coast on Amtrak (change in Chicago)
4:19 Gaps in the Amtrak route map
5:02 Amtrak’s thruway connecting services
5:58 The joys of riding Amtrak
6:25 Amtrak website’s various maps
6:57 Amtrak’s Track-A-Train feature
7:31 Using Google Maps for Amtrak routes
8:07 Using Amtrak’s website to plan thruway connections
8:34 Wrap-up
Amtrak PDF map: https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/public/documents/Maps/Amtrak-System-Map-1018.pdf
Amtrak interactive map: https://www.amtrak.com/plan-your-trip.html
Amtrak Track a Train tool: https://www.amtrak.com/track-your-train.html
So where exactly do Amtrak trains go in the United States? This video is an in-depth look at where Amtrak can take you, and how you can use Amtrak and its connecting services to get around America.
To get around America and travel between the cities on this map, sometimes it’s a single ride on one train and sometimes it isn’t. Most importantly, there’s no coast-to-coast service. So if you want to travel from, say, New York to Los Angeles, you’ll have to transfer. Most transfers between the east and the west part of the country are done in Chicago, which is a major Amtrak hub. You can also transfer in New Orleans.
The best way to figure out exactly how to get from place to place on Amtrak is to let them decide. When you buy tickets on the Amtrak website, you just put in your starting and ending points and it will give you whatever options there are. Often there aren’t really as many options as you’d think, assuming you want as few transfers as possible. For example, despite all the Amtrak lines in the northeast, there’s only one direct route between Boston and Chicago, and only two between New York and Chicago.
Speaking of the northeast, this is arguably the best-served area of the United States. Compared to other parts of the country, quite a few shorter and more specialized routes exist here. So you can take the Keystone Service between New York and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; or the Pennsylvanian between New York and Pittsburgh. The Downeaster goes between Boston and Brunswick, Maine. From New York, the Adirondack and Maple Leaf take you to Montreal and Toronto, respectively. So, if you’re traveling around the northeast on Amtrak, you’re fairly well covered.
What if you want to go from Washington DC to Denver? In this case you’ll need two trains, either the Cardinal or the Capitol Limited to Chicago, and then the California Zephyr to Denver.
Now, while there are a lot of major and some not-so-major cities on this map, and thus ways to travel between them on Amtrak, there are obviously some gaps. We already saw how Amtrak doesn’t even enter Wyoming or South Dakota at all, and other states like New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Delaware just barely. And what about major destinations Amtrak *does* go, like Atlanta? Only one route passes through Atlanta, the Crescent. That means there’s no easy way to get between Atlanta and… Chicago, or Florida, or Nashville. New Orleans and Washington DC, those are pretty much your only options from Atlanta. In fact Amtrak doesn’t go anywhere near Nashville. Nor does it go to Phoenix, or Las Vegas, or Boise or Twin Falls, or Augusta Maine. And on and on.
The good news is that Amtrak partners with various transportation services, usually buses, around the country to provide access to many more destinations. This map, which is on the Amtrak website, shows these connecting routes in green. Amtrak calls them Thruway services. This is how you can fill in a lot of the gaps in Amtrak’s main train routes, and get to Las Vegas, or to Phoenix, or Montgomery Alabama, or Sarasota, or Nashville, or way up through Wisconsin and Michigan. This is how you explore more of Oregon and Colorado, and Kentucky and Ohio… and yes, how you can use Amtrak to move around the great state of Wyoming.
See you on the rails!
42 Comments
Thanks for hopping on the train with me!
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They should take up all the northern track and make it a bicycle 🚲 trail. You can train around Europe and take you bicycle, get off and ride around an area or to another country and then get back on the train. You can also just get on a train and a conductor comes to check tickets if you don't have a ticket whip out you credit/Debit card and pay him/her.
Back in the 90s I decided to do something a little different. Instead of my annual drive out to Minnesota where I was born and raised I figured I'd try taking the train. So I took a train out of Connecticut to the South Boston station. Got a sleeper to Chicago and changed again to go to St Paul. It was the most relaxing and fun trip I'd ever made. I got to meet all kinds of people. We talked, we played cards in the club and we had dinner and breakfast together. The attendants were just that. They attended it everything we needed. Really great people. Even though I had a sleeper it cost less than the gas tolls food and motels would have if I'd driven out. After that I was always kind of envious of the rail system in England. Granted it's much smaller then the US but it would be nice if there was more of a rail system here. Of course it would also be nice if this voice recognition software was better but that's life.
SATX TO LAS VEGAS NV?
We lack a good rail system like in Europe or Asia, and our bus travel sucks!
It kind of sucks in the central United States going north and south does not work with Amtrak
They don't go anywhere in Central Ohio, they're afraid that if it was just a train ride to leave everyone would.
The black stops are more than what you show . Lol
Amtrack Website sucks
America needs to bring back train passenger service covering all the states like we used to before the interstate highways were built back in the 50's. That would take a lot of traffic off of the roads.
We especially need passenger service back along the Southern Tier of New York State .
Need to get that north/south "Starlight" route (trains, not buses) moving through Medford, Oregon. The route is just as scenic as the one which presently goes through Klamath Falls.. -It's just that Medford (Ore.) seems to be much more economically active, with a significantly larger/growing population etc.. Not a whole lot going on in Klamath Falls, unfortunately. Would probably boost that north/south train ridership.
So, in other words, as usual, Amtrak isn't good for anything.
Why does Amtrak not go through Phoenix AZ?
did you know Amtrak owns their Northeast Corridor from DC to Boston? and thats ALL they own.
everywhere else they run is on freight railroads as a guest.
It's ridiculous that the US' 5th largest city doesn't have train service.
Shame you can't buy a yearly pass:(
I noticed that the route that I took in January 1963 from Chicago to LA, is no longer in existence. Of course, AMTRAK was not in existence at that time – we still had major railroad lines at that time. The town where I grew up in SW Wisconsin, used to have 2 railroads come through town, The Milwaukee Road and the Burlington line, and now there is only a freight line running on the old Milwaukee Road tracks, but the Milwaukee Road is long gone. The Milwaukee Road yards in the Menomonee Valley in Milwaukee, are also long gone. The times of the trains dominance of transportation in America have gone the way of the dinosaur.
Can't see the routes – 2 dull.
I liked the Amtrak dining cars pre-pandemic. Great food, and a chance to meet other passengers. Not so good now, and I have traveled on Amtrak in long overnight trains, like Montreal to Dallas, or NYC to Miami, both ways, the autotrain, and many routes in between. The experience now, it's not the same. Still okay, but not as it was.
I’m shocked there’s no an Amtrak line from Atlanta go to Florida
The USA rail system is a total joke smh Europe has the best rail system
The northern route is beautiful
Great map and great music.
Amtrak is falling apart from deferred maintenance and careless employees. Most of the coaches are dumpsters. I took my last ride on Amtrak between Portland and San Francisco in 2017. NEVER AGAIN. The best thing would be for Amtrak to be closed down and its equipment sold as surplus.
There used to be a leg of the Sunset Limited that went from South Florida, through the Panhandle of Florida and Mobile Alabama to New Orleans, but I guess it got canceled. At one point, they even built an Amtrak station in my hometown of Pensacola, but it’s sat vacant for decades. I heard recently that there was some talk of bringing it back which would be great. At this point there’s no place to catch an Amtrak within a 4 hour drive which sort of defeats the purpose.
The USA has a pathetic passenger train network. Go to China, Japan, Europe and take some great trains.
Why don’t they have an I10 or I20 east west southern route? There must be a reason.
One of the great aspects of train travel is getting to see wilderness parts of the country that have no roads. Another great thing is usually the trains go through the back side of cities and towns, places you'd never otherwise get to see. The only part I don't like is having to sit with strangers in the Dining Car…conversation is required no matter if you want to or not. Travel by train gets into your blood…I get nostalgic every time I hear a train whistle.
I suspect the reason we don't have high speed rail here is because we have switched from playing "Risk" to "Monopoly" many years ago.😜
Thanks for giving all the information of our country to everyone in the whole world.. if that is correct
For a month in January 1978 a friend and I travelled all the way around the US from Portland OR south to LA to the East Coast (up and down a few times), an (unplanned overnight) stop in Montreal and back to Spokane WA all on an Amtrak Ameripass for… $100!!! We basically used the train as our hotel… one of the best adventures of our college years!!
Love travelling by train!!!
Regardless of what you think of the performance, if it weren't for Amtrak, there would be no real train passenger service at all in the US. It's probably on borrowed time, as it is.
Also Jacksonville to New Orleans.
2 области вообще без электричек и только одна линия DC – Бостон, которая соответствует российским стандартам. Грустно как-то у вас с электричками. У нас по всей стране ЭП3Д гоняют.
My only complaint is that they do not offer the meals like they used to and that you pictured anymore. It’s only cold sandwiches or something as heated up nothing with rice or the open burger or even vegetables is offered anymore. Sad to say because I travel to DC from Miami and my cousin on her first trip from Atlanta. I hadn’t traveled the train in years and was unaware that they no longer offered the food that we were used to. There was no pancakes sausage or scrambled eggs do we have for breakfast and no steak and rice meals for dinner.This particular trip was March 2023.
ahahahahaha i bet if i talk about a train robbery like the wild west this guy will call the feds
lol im why trains dont go certain places
Hi! Trying to get from Florida to New Orleans. Would have to go north forever then south again. Any suggestions? Thanks
Great way to travel. Hotel on wheels.
In 2016, I was able to book Thruway bus service from Portland to Astoria, Oregon, without booking a train. The website doesn’t allow it, but I believe you may be able to book it by calling Amtrak.
If I want to go from Philly to Seattle, do I have to pay for extra transfers or is it included in one transaction?
Thank you so much for this great information! I'm planning a trip soon from Toronto to Charleston to see my friend after 30 years. Your videos are really helping me with the planning.