Amtrak owned, leased, or operated lines.

This deal with the Amtrak lease of the Hudson line gets me thinking, Outside of the NEC how much track DOES Amtrak actually own, lease, or operate.

Here is what I can think of

Amtrak owned, operated, or leased lines. (Exluding NEC, Keystone, and Springfield).

Amtrak Michigan Line. Porter to Kalamazoo with recently lease/purchase to Dearbone MI.

Amtrak Hudson/Empire line (includes Amtrak Port Road connector for Boston lake shore)

Amtrak CUS Station Terminal

Amtrak NOUPT Station Terminal.

Any others I forget? I know that there are probably some obscure connectors and station tracks I have forgotten.

Either Amtrak or Caltrans owns the San Diegans route, but it's no longer property of BNSF.

Also, I'm not sure how much trackage is associated with Brighton Park shops or Beech Grove - there may be a mile or two of lead to either shop.

An awful lot of lines are owned by local transit authorities, or by local governments for use by local transit authorities. The Surfliner route (not San Diegans for a long time!) is IIRC LA Metro-owned trackage in this Union Station area (sublet in some sense to Metrolink), then BNSF to Fullerton (IIRC), then Metrolink (or possibly one of the associated governments involved in Metrolink) to Oceanside, then North County Transit District, then I believe San Diego MTS (the latter two jointly run Coaster). I may have bits and pieces of this wrong, as some of the intergovernmental arrangements are complicated, but apart from the section which is part of BNSF's Transcon, it's all local transit agencies.

To answer Alcochaser's original question, I believe you have listed all the Amtrak-owned, Amtrak-dispatched revenue trackage. At least if by "the NEC" you are including various stuff like the Boston South Station tracks and the Washington Union Station southern approach tracks through the tunnel. There is also some question regarding the status of the Michigan line from Dearborn through Detroit, as I've seen conflicting information. And I'm not sure who dispatches LA Union, though I know who owns it (LA Metro) and who maintains it (Metrolink).

Amtrak also owns quite a lot of shop and yard trackage, which I will not attempt to list; it's worth noting that much of it is not connected to Amtrak revenue trackage.

Amtrak also owns and operates a scattered collection of stations (and platforms and parking lots, etc) which are on lines they don't own. I do not have a list of those either, though it could theoretically be assembled from the Great American Stations website.

Now, if you're comparing "public" vs. "private" trackage, there is also a lot of trackage owned and operated by commuter railroads or government-owned railroads who have good relationships with Amtrak. MBTA, Metro-North, Metra, NMDOT (Railrunner), Metrolink, Coaster, and Tri-Rail all host Amtrak, with Sound Transit / Tacoma Rail and TRE scheduled to be added to that list after upcoming improvements. I think New Orleans Public Belt hosts the Sunset Limited. Oh, and GO Transit hosts part of the Maple Leaf route (though it hasn't taken over dispatching yet, and the Maple Leaf is considered a VIA train there). And now that I think about it, I believe VIA owns the trackage in Pacific Central station in Vancouver.

Well, the answer to this seemingly simple question can be complicated, as some of the posts in response have indicated. Let's take the NEC first.

1) The trackage from South Station to the Rhode Island line is actually owned by Massachusetts, dispatched and maintained by Amtrak,

2) From the state line to New Haven, it's all Amtrak.

3) New Haven to New Rochelle is owned and maintained (and dispatched) by Metro-North. From there to DC, it's all Amtrak, except that LIRR and Amtrak operate Penn Station on alternating six-month shifts.

4) New Haven to Springfield is Amtrak.

5) New York to Albany is complicated. The West Side Connection is Amtrak owned and dispatched, then trains use Metro-North to Poughkeepsie (MP 75.8). From there, it's CSX all the way to Albany, although the State of NY pays for a higher track class than CSX would otherwise maintain. Trackage from CP 125 into Albany is owned by CSX, but maintained by Amtrak, as is the track to Schenectady. Beyond to Amsterdam, the state of NY owns and Amtrak dispatches. The Post Road Connection is Amtrak owned and operated.

6} The Harrisburg Line is owned and operated by Amtrak.

Outside the NEC, yes, Amtrak owns and dispatches only the Porter to Kalamazoo segment, and some terminals including Chicago and Portland. But Amtrak does run on several segments of state-owned track dispatched by commuter rail operators. The San Diego line has already been mentioned. Amtrak 3 and 4 usually use the San Gabriel Sub from San Bernardino to LAX. It belongs to Metrolink. Amtrak 1 and 2 also use part of the San Gabriel.

Amtrak Florida trains to Miami use a segment owned by the state of Florida between West Palm Beach and Miami. There is talk about moving the Eagle to the TRE (former Rock Island/Burlington) between Dallas and Ft. Worth. While Metra in Chicago does own track, all Amtrak operations in the area are over Class I trackage.

As to terminal switching roads, yes, Amtrak operates over NOPB to get across the Mississippi. In Minneapolis, Amtrak uses Minnesota Commercial to get from the CP to BNSF. Midway Station is actually on Minnesota Commercial trackage. In Portland, OR Amtrak owns the Portland Terminal Company. In St. Louis, Amtrak uses TRRA to get to the Amtrak station (on either of the two routes a train might take). In Kansas City, the BNSF main line that Amtrak uses actually belongs to Kansas City Terminal, which is jointly owned by BNSF, UP, and KCS but runs no trains itself. Gateway Western (now KCS) provides contract switching services for KCT.

There are probably a few other oddities that others can point out on this subject. That's all I can think of.

On ConRail Day, 4/1/76, Amtrak discovered that the detour route for the Cardinal (James Whitcome Riley) over the Chesapeake & Ohio of Indiana involved a bit of the old Erie RR, which Chessie didn't want to keep. Amtrak had to make their own deal (lease or sale) with the bankruptcy Trustee, who was no longer operating a railroad.

Nellie, doesn't KCT provide some switching via Watco?

http://www.hiphopcars.com/cars/jaguar-red-on-red.jpg

and

http://railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=369346&nseq=4

are some recent pics of KCT operations.

I believe I've been on Amtrak 4 when PVs were added via KCT switcher.