The

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak (; ), is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates intercity rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

Daily Long-Distance Service Study was created by the

Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL),H.R. 3684 is a United States federal statute enacted by the 117th United States Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden on Nov ...

to be completed by the

Federal Railroad Administration The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) is an agency in the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). The agency was created by the Department of Transportation Act of 1966. The purpose of the FRA is to promulgate and enforce railroa ...

. Its purpose is to evaluate the restoration and addition of discontinued and new long-distance passenger services, as well as the upgrading of tri-weekly long-distance services to daily operation.

History

In November 2021, Congress passed the

. Section 22214 of the law orders the

(FRA) to study the restoration of all long-distance Amtrak routes that had been discontinued, daily service on non-daily trains (the and ), and the possibility of new long-distance routes—particularly those that were discontinued upon the formation of Amtrak. The criteria for new routes under consideration is that they "link and serve large and small communities as part of a regional rail network", "advance the economic and social well-being of rural areas of the United States", "provide enhanced connectivity for the national long-distance passenger rail system", and "reflect public engagement and local and regional support for restored passenger rail service". Work on the Long-Distance Service Study began in September 2022. In April 2023, the FRA released information that they had successfully held a series of six working group meetings during the previous February where they met with stakeholders and worked to review the study's requirements and to evaluate discontinued services. Included in the regional reports was information about current LD routes trip origin-destination pairs, as well as similar information for proposed routes. Materials from the meetings indicated that the FRA was studying 18 discontinued long-distance Amtrak routes, as well as four that were discontinued on Amtrak's creation in 1971: the ''

City of Miami Miami is a coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a population of 6.14 million, is the second-largest metropolitan ...

'', ''

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

'', '' Pan-American'', and '' San Francisco Chief''. In August 2023, the FRA released their second round of meeting materials. In November 2023, the FRA released their interim report to congress describing their current progress in the study. In February 2024, the FRA released its third round of meeting materials which included a preferred draft network of fifteen new long-distance routes. The plan would increase the coverage of the long-distance Amtrak network by 23,200 route miles, reaching an additional 45 million population, 61 metropolitan statistical areas, 24 congressional districts, twelve National Park Service sites, and two states (

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

and

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state, state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Dakota people, Dakota Sioux ...

). Another round of public input took place before the final set of actions are recommended to Congress in January 2025.

Notes

References

Sources

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External links

* {{Amtrak routes Long-distance Night trains of the United States Amtrak route networks

Long distance Amtrak routes Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...