🇺🇸 Operator
Train routes operated by Amtrak
24 routes · high-speed 1 · classic 10 · night train 9 · scenic 4
Amtrak runs 24 of the routes in the World Train Map atlas, 41,170 km of railway across 2 countries. The longest is the California Zephyr at 3,924 km; the fastest is the Acela, running up to 257 km/h; the oldest line it runs over here opened in 1865. 1 of its routes crosses an international border.
The company itself dates to 1971, filed on Wikidata as a railway company. What this page says about the company comes from Amtrak's own Wikidata item, checked against the countries its routes here actually cross before any of it is used; everything about the railway is counted from this atlas. Official site ↗ · Wikipedia ↗ · Wikidata Q23239 ↗
Open the world railway map →- Routes here
- 24
- Total length
- 41,170 km
- Countries
- United States, Canada
- Fastest
- Acela · 257 km/h
- Longest
- California Zephyr · 3,924 km
- Oldest line here
- 1865
- Company founded
- 1971
- Type
- railway company
High-speed (1)
- Acela
America’s fastest train works the dense Northeast Corridor: 240 km/h bursts between five major downtowns.
Wikipedia ↗
Classic (10)
- Southwest Chief
Heir to the Santa Fe Super Chief, “Train of the Stars”: crests 2,388 m Raton Pass on the old Santa Fe Trail.
Wikipedia ↗ - Sunset Limited
America’s oldest train name, running since 1894: crosses the Pecos River High Bridge and the Chihuahuan Desert three times a week.
Wikipedia ↗ - Silver Star
Amtrak’s daily New York–Miami run via the Carolinas and a loop through Tampa: the East Coast’s classic snowbird train down to the Florida sun.
Wikipedia ↗ - Vermonter
One of Amtrak’s longest daytime runs; trains reverse at Springfield to swing up the Connecticut River valley into Vermont’s Green Mountains.
Wikipedia ↗ - Northeast Regional
Amtrak’s busiest train, over 12 million riders a year, racing the electrified Northeast Corridor at up to 125 mph without the Acela fare.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pennsylvanian
Sweeps around Horseshoe Curve near Altoona: the 1854 engineering landmark that finally tamed the Allegheny grade.
Wikipedia ↗ - Borealis
Amtrak’s May 2024 daytime run up the Mississippi from Chicago through Milwaukee and Wisconsin’s river bluffs to the Twin Cities.
Wikipedia ↗ - Adirondack
Hudson castles, Lake Champlain narrows and border-country vineyards: widely called the most scenic day train in the eastern United States.
Wikipedia ↗ - Ethan Allen Express
In July 2022 it became the first passenger train to reach Burlington in 69 years, extending north from Rutland along Lake Champlain.
Wikipedia ↗ - Missouri River Runner
Twice a day along the wide Missouri: Hermann’s German wine town, the capitol at Jefferson City and ragtime Sedalia between the two big cities.
Wikipedia ↗
Night train (9)
- Empire Builder
Two nights tracing the Great Northern’s empire: skirting Glacier National Park along the Montana Rockies.
Wikipedia ↗ - Floridian
Born of a 2024 tunnel-works merger of two classic trains: one seat from Lake Michigan over the Alleghenies to Tampa and Miami, nearly two days aboard.
Wikipedia ↗ - Silver Meteor
The Seaboard streamliner that opened Florida’s diesel age in 1939: 28 hours from Penn Station to palm-lined Miami, still running nightly.
Wikipedia ↗ - Crescent
Heir to the 1925 Crescent Limited. Manhattan to the French Quarter past Blue Ridge foothills, midnight Atlanta and a dawn crawl across Lake Pontchartrain.
Wikipedia ↗ - Texas Eagle
A Missouri Pacific name kept alive from the Loop to the Alamo: with through sleepers to Los Angeles, one of the longest runs on the Amtrak map.
Wikipedia ↗ - Cardinal
Amtrak’s slowest way to Chicago and its prettiest: tri-weekly through Virginia horse country and the whitewater canyons of the New River Gorge.
Wikipedia ↗ - Lake Shore Limited
Heir to the New York Central’s 1897 Water Level Route: up the Hudson at dusk, along Lake Erie by night, into Chicago with morning coffee.
Wikipedia ↗ - City of New Orleans
Immortalized in Steve Goodman’s 1971 song: overnight down the Mississippi Delta past Memphis, Yazoo City and the Louisiana bayous.
Wikipedia ↗ - Auto Train
Cars and motorcycles ride in autoracks behind the sleepers: often the world’s longest passenger train, nonstop Virginia to Florida.
Wikipedia ↗
Scenic (4)
- California Zephyr
Two nights, seven states: through the Rockies’ canyons and over Donner Pass, widely called America’s most beautiful train ride.
Wikipedia ↗ - Coast Starlight
Cascade volcanoes, Bay fog and a hundred miles of Pacific surf from the parlour car’s armchairs.
Wikipedia ↗ - Pacific Surfliner
Heir to the 1938 San Diegan: surfboards ride free as double-deckers skim the sand at Del Mar and San Clemente.
Wikipedia ↗ - Winter Park Express
Amtrak’s revived ski train climbs more than 1,100 m through 28 tunnels and spills skiers out steps from Winter Park’s lifts.
Wikipedia ↗
Photos via Wikimedia Commons — each route page credits the author & licence
How many train routes does Amtrak run?
24 of the routes in this atlas are Amtrak services, covering 41,170 km across 2 countries (United States, Canada). That is what this atlas draws, not the operator's whole network — a national railway runs thousands of local services no map of notable journeys would list.
What is the fastest Amtrak train?
The Acela, Boston to Washington, D.C., at up to 257 km/h. Its fastest scheduled run takes 6 h 42 min over 735 km.
Does Amtrak run night trains?
Yes — 9 sleeper services in this atlas: Empire Builder (Chicago – Seattle), Floridian (Chicago – Miami), Silver Meteor (New York – Miami), Crescent (New York – New Orleans), and others.
When was Amtrak founded?
Wikidata records the company's inception as 1971, and files it as a railway company. The oldest railway it runs over in this atlas opened in 1865 — the line and the company are rarely the same age, and this page dates both.
Countries Amtrak runs in
- 🇺🇸 Train routes in United States 62 routes
- 🇨🇦 Train routes in Canada 21 routes
Other operators in United States
- Alaska Railroad 3 routes
- Amtrak · NCDOT 2 routes