Abandoned Amtrak Routes

Since Amtrak's inception in 1971, how many Amtrak routes were there in which the host railroad line was abandoned and the physical trackage removed? In which cases the Amtrak route itself had to be either discontinued or re-routed. Note that I am referring here to routes with regularly scheduled Amtrak service, not specials or excursion runs. Nor am I talking about passenger service on predecessor railroads, since that could apply to just about any rail line.

National Limited -- ran in part on the Pennsylvania RR's "Panhandle line." The trackage between London and Dayton, OH was ripped up between 1989 and 1993 (OK, a tiny section still exists in South Charleston). The section from west of Dayton to Indianapolis was mostly gone by the mid-80s.

Cardinal -- The line the Cardinal used between Richmond and Muncie, IN (before it was rerouted via Indianapolis) is now a hiking/biking trail. It's called, of all things, the "Cardinal Greenway".

In West Virginia, which Amtrak route ran on the B&O Clarksburg-Parkersburg line, abandoned in the late 1980s?

Wasn't the Broadway Limited through Northern Ohio rerouted recently because of an abandonment?

The Sunset Limited was kicked out of downtown Phoenix and forced to go through Maricopa instead. I don't know how much, if any, of the UP track on the old route was actually physically removed.

The Southwest Chief was bumped off it's Orginial Route which the Super Chief Ran on due to a Bridge being Abanoed around CUS to get the old ATSF they went via BN now to Cameron, IL, There were several routes in IN in the 70's that forced Amtrak Off I can't name them all also.

AmtrakFan

Former Monon route in Indiana had the Cardinal doing STREET RUNNING in Lafayette. Not any more.

~Ra'akone

Part of the Pioneer"s route in Idaho is gone, with the UP abandoning part of their BOISE trackage.(Something I heard on a websited.)

Two come quickly to my mind:
1. The former S.A.L. route between Petersburg, Va. and Norlina, N.C.
which has been abandoned and torn up, the Silver Star was rerouted to
an N.S. line between Selma and Raleigh before picking up the former S.A.
L. again at Raleigh.
2. The former S.A.L. route between Coleman (just south of Wildwood, FL)
and Auburndale which again resulted in a rerouted train.
Refreshing my memory some more, another line that had Amtrak service
for a period was the old Canada Southern between Niagara Falls, Ont. and
Windsor, Ont. Amtrak had a New York - Detroit train running over this
route for a time. This original New York Central line was acquired by
Conrail but later sold to the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific, I am
not sure which railroad got which portions of this line but at least part of
it has been abandoned and torn up.
Another former S.A.L. line, between Savannah and Jacksonville was
abandoned some years ago, the line ran via Thalmann, Georgia and had
at least one Amtrak train each way a day and some of the time more.
A sizeable portion of the middle of this line has been torn up although the
section in Florida is still in use to access the port at Fernandina Beach and
business around Kingsland, Georgia.
Unfortunately, in some areas, it has become somewhat difficult to track
just exactly which lines Amtrak actually uses.
Noel Weaver

The former MONON route Chicago-Louisville used by the Floridian between 1974-79.

The Southwest Chief was also rerouted from Santa Fe's Pasadena line to Fullerton. The Pasadena line sat dormant for a while, but part of it is now LA Metro's Gold Line (a light rail system)

Between where the Gold Line ends and where the line joins the active UP track in Pomona, most of the track is still there, albeit very rusted.

Tampa to St. Petersburg, Florida, former SAL route?

CZ has moved railroads over its post-1971 history.

AFAICT, Chicago to Denver has always been CB&Q/BN/BNSF.

Denver to Ogden via UP morphed into Denver to Salt Lake City when D&RGW joined Amtrak. The train began life as the "San Francisco Zephyr" (if there ever was a compromise between Cities and Zephyrs, this was it!), and regained its historic name when Amtrak put the train back on the Rio Grande.

Salt Lake/Ogden to Emeryville, iirc, moved across SP and WP tracks. The current routing being the WP into eastern Nevada, then the historic SP through Reno, across Donner Pass and into Emeryville.

John Perkowski

How about some of the routings via the Mississippi River bridges at St. Louis and that maze of terminal trackage in the area?

I don't think the former trackage that Amtrak used between Tampa and
St. Petersburg has actually been abandoned. Perhaps "Crazy Nip" can
better fill us in on this one.
Noel Weaver

Noel Weaver wrote:I don't think the former trackage that Amtrak used between Tampa and
St. Petersburg has actually been abandoned. Perhaps "Crazy Nip" can
better fill us in on this one.
Noel Weaver

that is correct, it is still in use actually

one local a day between clearwater and st. pete and one a day between clearwater and yeoman yd. tampa

the circus train used to traverse the route as well, but beginning this year (2004), the circus no longer comes to st. petersburg so that too is a thing of the past

there are very few customers on the line between tampa and st. pete

the largest customer is the st. pete times getting 4-5 carloads of newsprint just about every 2 - 3 days and conrad yelvington getting limestone and aggregate in Largo

other than that, not much at all, just a carload here and there

it was something to see this line in the late '70s as i grew up in st. pete

the clearwater station was demolished in 2003 and the st. pete station is now some sort of (failing I believe) medical complex, the platforms and overhangs still remain however and the old coach yard / shops off of 22nd ave N is now a home depot

Interesting response.
My father retired around 1969 and they moved to the Clearwater area at
that time. I often made trips down to visit, some of which were by train.
I remember well the two trains a day each way through the street in
Clearwater, got slides of them too. There was also still a train each way
through Dunedin (the Chicago train).
Also remember the Alco's on the freight trains.
At the time my parents were living in the area, there was good action
right in Clearwater and super action in Auburndale which was only a couple of hours away.
I didn't realize that things had gone down so badly in the area.
I never thought the idea of Amtrak cutting back to Tampa was a very good idea. Still don't think so.
Noel Weaver

The former SAL line along the gulf shore (Clearwater, Dunedin, Ozona, Tarpon Springs) is the one where trackage was torn up, and a bike trail installed.