What other railroad companies are there besides amtrak?

Question

What other railroad companies are there besides amtrak?

Answer 1

Amtrak is the only national passenger service railroad. There are short line excursion railroads around but they typically do not do revenue service in the typical sense of the word. There are local comuter service railroads all across the country such as SEPTA, and CALTRAN etc. As for freight service there are a few biggies that have been created out of some of the many railroads that have met untimely deaths in the last half century. Notably there is Norfolk Southern (NS), Burlington Northern Santa Fe, Union Pacific, and CSX to name a few. There are also many short line railroads in operation such as the Reading & Northern, and North Shore.

Answer 2

Amtrak is not a railroad company.  In fact, it isn't any kind of company at all.

It is another in an endless line of Federally mandated, funded and operated bureaucracies, which goes a long way towards explaining its stellar non-performance and as a black hole into which is dumped hundreds of millions of tax payers' dollars every year, only to perpetuate its non-performance.

Its viability has been proven in commuting operations, however, and this aspect of its operation should be maintained.  But the rest of the network has been and shall continue to be a losing proposition, and after nearly thirty years of non-solvency the network should be dismantled.

Think of it this way........

Suppose each and every time you stick your head out your front door, someone thumps you in the head with a 2x4.  How many times are you gonna look to see if he's still there?

Answer 3

Burlington Northern Santa Fe

Union Pacific

Kansas City Southern

Norfolk Southern

CSX Corp.

Iowa, Chicago & Eastern

Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern

Montana Rail Link

WATCO family of shortlines

Many more, but these are the ones off the top of my head.

Answer 4

Passenger companies? There are none of Amtrak's scale but regional ones include GO!, the MTA group, CF rail, and various city metro lines.

Answer 5

Well, Amtrak provides passenger service. Other companies, which provide all freight service, include: Union Pacific, Kansas City Southern, BNSF (the combination of Burlington Northern and Santa Fe), CSX, and Norfolk Southern. Conrail is no longer an operating company. In recent years, its operating assets ---e.g. trackage and rolling stock--- were divided between Norfolk Southern and CSX.

Answer 6

Since the above guys mentioned Canadian rail companies..  Don't forget VIA Rail.  They are the Canadian equivalent of Amtrak.

Answer 7

Indeed, your question would take quite a long time to answer here as aside from the major Class Is mentioned above (of which there is also the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific) there are several Regional (Class II) and shortline (Class III) carriers along with tourist and commuter lines as well.  Check out the below websites to find out more information about the different railroads across the country.