Traveling 100% of the Amtrak System

How many of you have traveled 100% of the Amtrak system in both directions?

I have traveled about 70% of the system. My goal is to achieve 100% in the next couple of years.

I've only 8K rail Miles in my 14 Year life includes VIA. But I plan on doing evey mile of the system someday.

This person has....

Check out his site....Its fascinating:

http://www.trainweb.org/chris/chris.html

I have never travelled on the entire Amtrak system. Actually I have ridden nearly all of the critical secondary corridors as well as the entire NEC. I have ridden all of transit, MNR, and Septa is on the list and I have already ridden like half the system. Who knows, maybe in california I will ride the Pacific Surf to San Diego.

I think you would have to set some parameters, since the Amtrak system changes from year to year, and some routes come on and others come off. So what is your definition of "100% of the system?"

-otto-

I'm probably around 50 percent.

I am curious as to who has traveled the highest percentage of all current routes in both directions.

Every couple of months or so I fly to a different city and take a round trip, covering most of the country.

Chris Guenzler is over the 850,000 mile mark:

http://www.trainweb.org/chris/chris.html

Okay, let's start with a definition.

Who has traveled 100% of the current Amtrak system? I'm close. I'm only lacking two currently operated segments:

1) The current "Starlight" route up the East Valley line from Binney Jct. to Tehama (rode Sacramento to Binney Jct. on "California Zepyhr in 1968).

2) Detroit Central Station to Birmingham, MI (rode from Birmingham through Pontiac on an excursion from B'ham to Petoskey a few years back)

Other than those two small segments, I've ridden (at one time or another) over every route Amtrak now operates, plus some recent casualties, including:

1) Pioneer SLC -- Portland
2) UP through Wyoming (on Amtrak in 1982)
3) Los Angeles -- SLC
4) Indianapolis -- Louisville (ugh -- but I didn't want to miss the mileage)

In some cases, my "Amtrak" mileage was pre-1971, as with the Jacksonville -- New Orleans segment. I'll be interested in comments as to whether that "counts".

I don't have ChrisG's mles, but I'd guess my life total is in the range of 250,000. Since I'm a mileage collector, I keep track of only the first trip on each segment. I'm currently at just over 65,000 miles in the US and Canada, out of a total network (as of 2004) of around 180,000 route miles. So I'm a third of the way to riding every piece of track in North America.

Wow, and I thought I'd racked up a lot of mileage, Nellie.

I've traveled every extant LD troute west of Chicago in both directions (except Empire Builder WB CHI-SPK and the Sunset route east of SAS) and have been on some routes that the DOT ordered gutted.

Last time I checked I had 27,000 miles under my belt. With my California Zephyr trip last summer, I likely have close to 30,000 miles.

One giant trip in 2000 involved this routing that involved 6 days in a row on the train in sleeper and in coach:

-OKC-FTW
-FTW-SAS
-SAS-LA (Sunset was OT)
-LA-PDX
-PDX-SPK-SPK-PDX-PDX-SEA- SEA-CHI
-CHI-FTW
-FTW-OKC

(car to/from OKC from KCY)

Other trips:
-Osceola, Iowa -Sacramento, Calif., via Wyoming WB, Glenwood Canyon EB.

-Topeka-Galesburg, Galseburg-SLC-Vegas-LA, LA-Topeka

-Topeka-Las Vegas, N.M., Las Vegas - CHI, CHI-NOL, NOL-CHI, CHI-KCY (straight through trip)

I've also been

-KCY-LA, LA-Oakland
-OSC - SLC and back, three day weekend trip.
-Bakersfield-Oakland
-EMY-OMA-KCY

-KCY-CHI-PGH-PHL (via Three Rivers) RT

-Miami-Rocky Mt., NC - RT two-day trip.

-KCY-Flagstaff.
-Tucson-SAS, SAS-STL, STL-KCY

-FTW-STL, STL-KCY, KCY-Topeka, RT

-Newton, Kan. - Perry, Okla.
(several trips in late 1970s).

Not even close to the entire system for me...I've ridden the entire Northeast Corridor, the Keystone Corridor to Harrisburg, the Empire Corridor as far as Schenectady, the Carolinian as far as Durham, and the Crescent as far as Atlanta (from New York).

I have ridden many non-Amtrak trains all over the country, in cities on boths coasts and in between, and plenty of tourist trains, from Maui's "sugar cane train" to the Durango & Silverton in Colorado to the Mount Washington cog rail in New Hampshire, and many others!

I am 60 years old and have 140,000 miles to my name. So I have pretty much traveled all of it, much of it in both directions. But much of my mileage is pre-Amtrak as well.


So, I have traveled some places pre-Amtrak and also traveled many places in the U.S. which no longer, under Amtrak,have service.

Oh, yeah, about 10,000 of the above has been Canadian.

i have probably travelled about 70 % of it , including the desert wind , and pioneer routes . Vitually all of the west of Chicago routes .
i set out to travel every rail route in the world , some 15 or so year ago .
I think i travelled by rail in around 50 countries , many of which no longer have extensive rail passenger services .
I hope the USA doesnt join them .