What is the most popular passenger railroad line in US history?

Question

What is the most popular passenger railroad line in US history?

Answer 1

That would depend on how 'popularity' is measured, me thinks.

But, in the Golden Age of passenger rail travel, each railroad boasted its own fleet of top notch passenger equipment and service.

There was the '20th Century Limited' mentioned above, The SP's famed 'Daylights', the 'Broadway Limited' The Milwaukee Road's 'Hiawatha', The Burlington and Western Pacific 'Zephyrs', The Great Northern's 'Empire Builder', the jointly operated UP / SP 'City of San Francisco', the ATSF 'Super Chief' and many more.

All were popular in their own right, but as to which would be the most popular would be difficult to ascertain, as each were profitable at one time as well.  An interesting question, though.....

Answer 2

Menlo Park railroad station

1867

Answer 3

The Underground Railroad (Harriet Tubman)

Answer 4

There really isn't one "most popular" train or route, but here's some of the more popular/famous trains: Great Northern's (& now Amtrak's) Empire Builder, Northern Pacific's North Coast Limited, California Zepher (operated by the Burlington Route, Western Pacific, & the Rio Grande), Southern Pacific's Daylight route, Santa Fe's Super Chief, & Santa Fe's El Capitan. Those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head, & they don't include any from the eastern US, as I don't know nearly as much about them as I do ones in the west.

Answer 5

harriet tubman and the underground railroad.

Answer 6

New York City to Chicago on the 20th Century Limited.

Answer 7

I bet the New York Subway caries the most passengers

Answer 8

Amtrak

Answer 9

Santa Fe Super Chief, of course...

I suppose it might depend on where you grew up, and which one(s) you rode on.

I road on the Super Chief, as you might guess.  Back when they had dining cars...REAL dining cars.

Good old days.

Did you know that the death of the passenger train was due to the government pulling mail delivery from trains to airplanes and trucks?  At one point EVERY passenger train was paid for by the mail it carried, passengers were just extra profit.

Well, that MIGHT be an Urban Legend...but that's what my Dad told me a long time ago.

Answer 10

I have to agree with Hoghead on this one. Back then when the railroads had their own passenger services, each line had its own thing that made it special. These days, there's only Amtrak. One would think Amtrak would learn some lessons and find a way to incorporate what all the other railroads had, and use them in their own trains.

Answer 11

Pennsylvania Railroad.

They set the majority of the speeed records with the steam and electric trains.

The Penn Railroad created  the first trains to Miami and it was off season, so they created the college football games. Orange Bowl for tourism.

Penn Station all along the way, Today's stations were created in the 30 by the Penn.

No grade crossings created overhead bridge systems.

So many things to mention.

Answer 12

Well, that question could be debated until the end of time.  For luxury few trains could surpass that of the Pennsylvania Railroad's Broadway Limited and New York Central's 20th Century Limited.  On the other hand there was, and still is, the Great Northern's legendary Empire Builder, considered by many to be the most scenic rail journey in North America (it travels through the Pacific Northwest to Chicago) along with the joint Western Pacific-Denver & Rio Grande Western-Chicago, Burlington & Quincy's California Zephyr, which traveled the beautiful Feather River Canyon.  

The Union Pacific also had their luxurious "City" flagship trains and Milwaukee Road, its Hiawatha's, which roamed across the open prairies of the Midwest at blazing speeds of over 100 mph (and whose "Reduce to 90" wayside signs remain legendary to this day), even for steam locomotives!

These, however, are just an extreme few of the many many famous and well-known passenger trains which operated around the country.  And again, the most popular passenger train and the railroad which held the grandest fleet could be forever argued.

Answer 13

The Long Island RR carries more passengers, but they are all commuter trips.  I can speak to my home town, Kansas City for popular passenger trains.  We are (and were) the #2 rail hub in the nation.  The most traveled line was the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe.  The Santa Fe carried the most trians through town carrying all Chicago to LA traffic as well as to Dallas and Tulsa.  They ran The Chief, The Super Chief, El Capitan, Grand Canyon, Texas Chief and Tulsan to name a few.  The Missouri Pacific was famous for its Eagles to St. Louis.  Harry Truman traveled this route as President.  His private car would connect with the B&O in St. Louis for the trip to Washington DC.  Kansas City Southern ran the Southern Belle to New Orleans.  I challenge anybody to find a more attractive paint scheme than the black, yellow and red of thier passenger sets.  We even had some trains that were popular with railfans, but not with the public.  The Gulf,. Mobile & Ohio ran the longest doodlebug route to Bloomington, IL.  More railfans rode this than actual passengers.  The Frisco ran a local passenger schedule behind steam into the early 50's unsing small steam like 4-4-0s and Ten Wheelers.  Even the Chicago Great Western ran a local that nobody but railfans rode until 1962.