The company is officially called the National
Railroad Passenger Corporation, with the commonly used name "Amtrak" deriving from the words
American and
track. Service officially began on May 1, 1971 when
Clocker #235 departed New York City's
Penn Station en route to Philadelphia. Amtrak immediately took over
passenger service for all but three railroads; the
Southern Railway gave up its
Southern Crescent route to Amtrak in 1979 and the
Denver & Rio Grande Western Railroad ended passenger service in 1983, forcing Amtrak to reroute its
California Zephyr service to cover those routes. The
Rock Island Railroad went bankrupt in the late 1970s, and when Amtrak wouldn't take over its single long-distance passenger route and the state of Illinois wouldn't subsidize it, that service folded as well. There are more than 500 Amtrak
stations in 45 states - those without service are Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, Maine, and Wyoming. Trains operate over more than 22,000 route miles, only 730 of which are owned by Amtrak (mostly in their Northeast Corridor and in Michigan) - the rest of the tracks are owned by
freight railroads. Service in the New York/Washington corridor alone carries enough passengers to fill 121 airline flights daily, and Amtrak carries approximately 61,000 passengers every day. The company is also contracted to provide
commuter rail service for a number of regions, including California's
Caltrain,
Coasters, and
Metrolink,
MARC in Maryland, the
VRE in Virginia, the
MBTA in Massachusetts, and Connecticut's
Shoreline East.
Amtrak Routes by Region:
California
West
Midwest
Northeast
South
Sources: http://www.amtrak.com/about/amtrakfactpage.html and http://www.amtrak.com/destinations/index.html as well as trainman's helpful tips.