I was just curious about some of the busiest rail corridors in North America. Which railways operate the busiest rail corridors? I heard that Horseshoe Curve is pretty busy. I hope I have this name right. I believe that Con Rail operated trains through here.
I think Norforlk Southern now operates there. Since NS bought Conrail.
But I belive the Northeast Corridor which runs from Washington D.C. to New York City and Boston gets heavy traffic too. [8)]
But I wonder which lines are heavy out West…[%-)]
I am currently working track next to the UP Sunset Route through Casa Grande, Arizona. In a typical 8 hr. shift I count 16-18 trains by per day. Lots of stopping and watching high speed intermodal and manifests drag by. Triple siding in Casa Grande is usually filled with traffic waiting to negotiate the single main to Yuma west and Tucson east. Possible candidate for a hotspot?
Track speed is 60mph for hotshots and 40mph for drags. No slowing for crews working on the sidings as we are outside the 15ft. limit. Have to keep on your toes!!!
Cajon Pass currently handles up to 100 trains daily on the existing two BNSF mainlines on the LA to Chicago transcon. A third is being added to bump capacity up to 150 trains daily. Then there is UP’s line which adds quite a bit of traffic as well. Since ruling grades are up to 3 per cent, speeds are limited to about 15 mph.
UP will also be double-tracking the 100 miles on its Sunset route from west of Casa Grande to Tucson. Stay tuned …
Warren
The BNSF Chicago to Aurora main is quite busy, probably 40+ trains a day, but that may be a low estimate. Union Pacific’s ex-CNW Geneva Sub, through Elmhurst and all points west is quite busy. The BNSF that runs through Joliet is busy as well (Is that the Chillicothe Sub??) . And, the Indiana Harbor Belt is good for a bit of activity.
From a ton-mile standpoint the UP between N Platte and Gibbon, NE is one of the heaviest, if not the heaviest in N America. Some days it pushes 150 trains a day.
Dave H.
Good Morinng All,
I’m not sure of the exact current traffic details but a qualifying sub would be CN’s Oakville Sub (Toronto to Bayview Jct). When I was a lot younger I remember biking home from school and stopping at the Aldershot East overpass to watch the traffic. It was heavy in the afternoon, three or four trains an hour (at least) wasn’t unusual and this was in the mid '60’s (in the days before GO). This sub is the hub of the Grimsby, Halton and Dundas subs on the west and the Kingston sub on the east. It sees GO, Via, CN, (some CP) traffic. It is tied into MacMillan Yard through the Halton sub (at Burlington Ontario. I am old enough to remember when Halton sub was opened!) so sees a lot of freight on its western end (Burlington to Bayview ) as well as the passenger originating and through traffic. I wouldn’t be surprised if its traffic level is 100++ trains a day. Just this summer I was watching the action at Sunnyside one afternoon. GO and Via traffic was steady and there were a few switching locals as well. Burlington station (Brant St) would be a good place to get a more accurate idea of the traffic volume and frequency. Charlie
Chilliwack, BC
CSX between Folkston, GA and Jacksonville, FL (the Folkston Funnel) is probably the busiest in the Southeast, although its traffic is probably dwarfed by the Sunset Route, the UP across Nebraska and BNSF’s Racetrack. In number of trains (not tonnage), the Northeast Corridor is probably right up there. CSX’s ex-ACL up and down the East Coast is likely one of the busier single-track lines.
It would have to be Gibbon Ne. jct heaviest, average daily count 100+, I have been there many times & often there are trains on all 3 tracks with more backed up or coming.
Norfolk Southern’s ex-NYC Water Level Route between Butler, IN
and Elkhart sees 120 trains a day.
Joe
NS mainline across Northern Indiana will often see close to 100 per day. It carries NS, CP, Amtrak, and CSX from Porter west.
ed
I believe the busiest segment in North America is on the Northeast Corridor between Penn Station and Harold Tower in Long Island City where the Long Island Rail Road and Amtrak go their seperate ways. I think there are a good 300-400 weekday trains traversing that segment. LIRR makes up the lion share of the traffic followed by Amtrak NY-Boston trains and Amtrak/NJT deadhead movements between the Penn Sation and Sunnyside Yards.
I think the second busiest segment is between Penn Station and Kearny Junction in New Jersey. Kearny Junction is where NJ Transit trains diverage from the ex-PRR Northeast Corridor to the DL&W mainline. There are some 200-300 weekday trains running on this segment mostly NJ Transit trains with Amtrak contributing 50 or so trains. During peak periods, up to 29 trains per hour operate in the peak direction with 10-12 going against the flow. There’s plenty of action during those times.
I suspect Amtrack’s numbers between Kearney Junction and Penn Station are much higher than 50 a day on weekdays. I don’t have a recent timetable but the last one I saw was much closer to a 100 a day.
I would suspect that the 8 miles between East Barstow & Daggett CA maybe the busiest rail line in the USA easily over 100 trains each day [:)]
UP’s Overland Route from Chicago to Ohama sees pretty high volume. Part of it is triple track.
Haven’t we had a “Map of the Month” about this?
I would suggest that for sheer tonnage, nothing could beat Gibbon to North Platte. The line from Daggett west to Fullerton may have more movements (especially when you factor in commuter and Amtrak traffic on the western end of this).
In Chicagoland, I suspect that the BNSF Racetrack offers more variety, but UP West probably has more traffic overall. The tonnage picks up west of West Chicago–maybe the people who always go to LaFox Road are onto something, after all!
East out of Chicago used to be no contest–the Conrail route east to Porter and beyond to Elkhart. However, after Conrail split, this route has lost a biit of its luster to the old NKP line and the old B&O line. I don’t think CN’s traffic picked up like they thought it would after they replaced their tunnel at Port Huron.
Freight by R.R. (IMO)
UP-N.Platte to Gibbon
BNSF-Transcon, especially out of CA
NS-Elkhart, IN (but W. of Harrisburg, PA quite heavy also)
CSX-Folkston Funnel (also N. Indiana aquisition heavy at times)
KCS,CN,CP ???
Most people from outside our region may not know it yet, but two years ago the BNSF shifted its “Northern Transcon” route thru most of Illinois northward from the old Santa Fe main (Chicago-Joliet-Streator-Chillicothe-Galesburg) to the exx-CB&Q, ex-BN main line westward (Chgo-Naperville-Aurora-Plano-Mendota-Princeton-Galesburg). One caveat: on the Chicago end, the movements fluctuate with work-week rhythms because the route system is precisely scheduled if not overburdened between Union Station/Chicago and Naperville, and even on to Aurora, partly because of all the Metra commuter “scoots” (it’s their busiest line); and of course it also has to handle Amtrak and freight. (There is no need in this post to discuss suburban BNSF “Racetrack” photo ops; they have been well and truly discussed elsewhere.)
One earlier post to this site, whose author I would credit if I remembered his name[:I], gave post-a.m. rush on that triple-track Racetrack, 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. roughly (I think), as a time not to see Amtrak or freight on the Racetrack, probably because the varnishettes have to move back from Chicago/Union Station out to the 'burbs they serve just to make room. Then there follows a corollary pre-p.m. rush, roughly 3:30 to 5:00 p.m., back to Union Station in time for the Loop to disgorge. All this may have a cascade or ripple effect even 'way out on the Prairie; if so, it’s not hard to figure out how long traffic takes to get to where you are (or not) by consulting an Amtrak timetable for running speed; besides, Amtrak doesn’t schedule during peak Metra occupancy of line unless unavoidable. Also a great time to haul out any whipcord-antenna scanner and check for movements both to and from Chicago.
Indeed, there are many places on the Racetrack to photo scoots and Amtrak and some freight. In this post, though, I’m recommending a useful trainwatching s
Fullerton station now sees 52 passenger trains (Amtrak and Metrolink) a day on weekdays, plus all of he BNSF’s Transcon traffic going east from LA and occasional local freights. That passes over a triple track main at Fullerton. The Orange County Transit Authority has announced plans for weekday Metrolink trains every half hour from 5 AM to Midnight between Laguna Niguel and Fullerton, stopping short of the LA County line. Continuing this increase into LA (a seemingly logical step) is not being done because LA County cannot match the money that OC gets from the Measure M sales tax increase.
Jack
Al’s report is quite concise.
Depending on where you locate yourself on the Racetrack, Metra alone runs 48 inbound dinkies and 48 outbounds per weekday for 96 trains. There are two Amtraks in each direction daily, which makes 100 passenger trains. I’d say there are maybe 40-50 freights on a good day, too. Busy, busy, busy.
At West Eola we don’t get the dinkies that turnaround at Fairview Avenue, but we do get stuff coming off and going on the J and the Aurora Branch from West Chicago. Plus the daily Illinois RailNet manifest job up from Streator.