List of major cities in U.S. lacking Amtrak service

Several major cities and regional business centers in the continental United States lack Amtrak service. Five cities boast more than one million residents. However, some of these cities may be served by Thruway Motorcoach. A partial list of the cities not directly served by Amtrak is as follows:

*Phoenix, Arizona (#14, metro pop 3.7M) (see below)
*Las Vegas, Nevada (#30, metro pop 1.8M)
*Columbus, Ohio (#32, pop 1.7M) (lost service in 1979)
*Nashville, Tennessee (#39, pop 1.6M)(Lost service with the discontinuance of the "Floridian" in 1979).
*Louisville, Kentucky (#43, pop 1.2M) (lost service with the elimination of the "Kentucky Cardinal" in 2003)
*Dayton, Ohio (#53, pop 950,000) (lost service in 1979)
*Tulsa, Oklahoma (#45 pop 986,000)
*Augusta, Georgia (metro pop. 532,000)
*Des Moines, Iowa (pop 534,230)
*Fort Wayne, Indiana (pop 502,000)
*Colorado Springs, Colorado (pop 500,000)
*Baton Rouge, Louisiana (pop 430 000)
*Springfield, Missouri, (pop 451, 000)
*Boise, Idaho (pop 430,000) (lost service in 1997)
*Wichita, Kansas, (pop 344,000, metro pop 596, 000)(Service lost in 1979, new service probable around 2010.)
*Quad Cities area, Illinois and Iowa (pop 370,000)(New service probable by 2010.)
*Corpus Christi, Texas, (pop 285,000, metro pop 431, 000)
*Lexington, Kentucky, (pop 270,000)
*Lubbock, Texas, (pop 220,000)
*Corpus Christi, Texas, (pop 285,000, metro pop 431, 000)
*Madison, Wisconsin, (pop 223,000, metro pop 543, 000)
*Mobile, Alabama, pop 200,000, metro 400,000, (Service suspended since Hurricane Katrina)
*Montgomery, Alabama, (pop 202,000, metro pop 469, 000)
*Shreveport, Louisiana, (pop 200,000, metro pop 380 000)
*Columbus, Georgia, (pop 186,000, metro pop 276, 000)
*Knoxville Tennessee, (pop 175,000, metro pop 650,000)
*Amarillo, Texas (pop 175 000)
*Huntsville, Alabama, (pop 171, 000)
*Chattanooga, Tennessee, (pop 168,000, metro pop 497, 000)
*Allentown, Pennsylvania, (pop 161,000, metro pop 740, 000)
*Tallahassee, Florida, pop 160,000, (Service suspended since Hurricane Katrina)
*Sioux Falls, South Dakota, (pop 151,000, metro 224,000) (South Dakota and Wyoming are not served by Amtrak)
*Evansville, Indiana, (pop 117, 000, metro pop 186 ,000)
*Peoria, Illinois, (pop 115,000, metro pop 360,000)
*Manchester, New Hampshire, (pop 108, 000, metro pop 170 ,000)
*Billings, Montana, (pop 101, 000, metro pop 179 ,000)
*Wilmington, North Carolina, (pop 100, 000, metro pop 550 ,000)
*Green Bay, Wisconsin, (pop 100, 000, metro pop 227 ,000)
*Duluth, Minnesota, (metro pop 275 ,000)
*Pueblo, Colorado, (pop 103,000)

Other cities are not served directly due to inconvenient water barriers; they include Norfolk (#31) and Virginia Beach in the Hampton Roads area; San Francisco, where trains stop across the bay in Oakland and Emeryville; and St. Petersburg, Florida, where trains stop across the bay in Tampa. Trains had previously crossed some of the bays in question. Whereas trains once went from Oakland to San Francisco, they have been replaced by auto traffic (although the BART commuter heavy rail system operates a trans-bay tube underneath the bay through which it transports passengers). St. Petersburg also lost service across the bay when CSX lacked adequate funds to maintain the bridge across the bay. This proves inconvenient because the only other method of transportation is private taxi. The TECO Line Streetcar System and HART buses both dont connect with the two areas.

Phoenix, Arizona, is served via thruway motorcoach from the "Southwest Chief" at Flagstaff, Arizona. The "Sunset Limited" stops three times a week at the nearby (yet remote) Maricopa, roughly 30 miles south of the city; private taxis are the only transportation from there to metro Phoenix. Phoenix lost service in June 1996 after Southern Pacific (now a part of Union Pacific) threatened to abandon the line from Yuma. [Citation

References

See also

* [http://www.trainweb.org/moksrail/documents/pop/pop_article.htm Article on the missing markets that America's rail service doesn't serve. Analysis and charts.]
* [http://www.trainweb.org/moksrail/documents/pop/msa.htm Chart showing U.S. population centers and Amtrak service.]