Amtrak’s website says their network includes 18 tunnels. I believe the total should be about 100, so they are only counting their own trackage (?). 18 does seem a little high to me for the Northeast Corridor though.
I know there is one in DC, 4 (?) in Baltimore, 3 in New York City, 1 in New Haven, 1 in Providence and 1 at Back Bay. Would anyone happen to know of any others ?
You could reasonably say there are two tunnels under the Hudson and four under the East River-- they’re side by side, but they’re individual tunnels. Still sounds hard to get to 18, tho.
Does Amtrak own the tunnel in Washington?
What about the Moffat Tunnel [%-)]
That’s BNSF-owned, and if we counted all the tunnels on all the Class One’s that play Host Road to Amtrak passenger trains, there would indeed be dozens and more. If people say it totals over 100, I believe them. - a. s.
…System wide {including host RR’s}, there must be at least 100 or more…
If you’re counting system wide, there are 50 tunnels on the Coast Starlight route alone.
Unless it’s been moved recently the Moffat is on the former Rio Grande main between Denver and Salt Lake which is now a part of the UP not BNSF.
Mea culpa! But the tunnel count stays the same.
Along the route of the Empire Builder, there is the Cascade Tunnel, and also the tunnel between Tomah and La Crosse, Wisconsin.
BNSF does have trackage rights thru it[;)]
There are two tunnels at Zoo Interlocking in Philadelphia that for sure belong to Amtrak, there is a third tunnel at Zoo leading to the Belmont Branch that may or may not belong to Amtrak. Don’t forget the tunnel on the West Side Connector in NYC. There are 4 tunnels at Baltimore, the 3 “B&P” Tunnels south of the station and Union Tunnel to the north. There is a short tunnel at the east end of Sunnyside yard on the loop (service trackage, not mainline).
Thanks John. I looked at the website again and I noticed it says 17, not 18.
Regarding the entire 21,000 network, the tunnel total may be closer to 150 than 100. And it would probably take me at least 150 hours to surf every mile on Wikimapia or Terraserver. Yuck ! And even then I’d miss a few, like this one in Columbia, SC.
If THAT qualifies as a tunnel, then the Amtrak total is probably closer to 200 or 250.
Did you include the tunnels on both sides of NYC to and from Sunnyside in Long Island? There aren’t any on the corridor between New York and Baltimore. First tunnel west on the PRR is Spruce Creek halfway to Altoona unless they consider the duck unders at Zoo tower as tunnels. They might also consider the Trenton cut off connection at Morristown PA as a tunell. Maybe up the old NYC toward Albany. Where else do they own lines outside the corridor? They have one in Michigan but I doubt it has any tunnels.
Bellows Falls! Right near the station.