The flagship service on the Northeast Corridor is the Acela, Amtrak's only true high-speed train, reaching a top speed of 240 km/h between New York and Providence. The Acela completes the Washington to New York journey in under three hours and Washington to Boston in under seven hours. Alongside the Acela, the Northeast Regional provides more affordable service between the same major cities with more stops, including Trenton, New Brunswick, Princeton Junction, Newark, and Baltimore. Both services depart multiple times per hour during peak weekday mornings and evenings.
Beyond the Northeast, Amtrak operates a national network of long-distance trains that cross multiple states and time zones. The California Zephyr covers 3,924 kilometres between Chicago Union Station and Emeryville over 51 hours, passing through Denver, Salt Lake City, and Reno. The Empire Builder connects Chicago to Seattle and Portland in 46 hours via Minneapolis, Spokane, and the Columbia River Gorge. The Coast Starlight runs the entire Pacific coast from Los Angeles to Seattle in 35 hours, passing through Sacramento, Oakland, and Eugene. The Southwest Chief runs Chicago to Los Angeles in 43 hours via Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff.
State-supported corridor services add significant regional coverage. California operates Amtrak California trains including the Pacific Surfliner between San Luis Obispo and San Diego, the San Joaquin between Oakland and Bakersfield, and the Capitol Corridor between Auburn and San Jose. Illinois supports the Lincoln Service between Chicago and St Louis. Washington State funds the Amtrak Cascades between Eugene and Vancouver BC. The Heartland Flyer connects Oklahoma City and Fort Worth daily. Each state contract supplements Amtrak's core federal funding and shapes local timetables and frequencies.
Commuter rail services in major metropolitan areas run independently of Amtrak. New Jersey Transit operates one of the largest commuter networks in the country out of New York Penn Station, covering over 160 stations across New Jersey with connections to New York. MARC operates in the Washington DC to Baltimore and Cumberland corridor. Metra serves Chicago and its suburbs with 11 lines from Union Station and Millennium Station. Caltrain connects San Francisco to San Jose and Gilroy with hourly service. The Los Angeles Metrolink covers six counties from a Los Angeles Union Station hub. These commuter trains are tracked on this page using their published timetables.
Live positions shown on the map use timetable-based interpolation for all US trains. This means the displayed position is calculated from the scheduled departure time, the official timetable stop sequence, and the known coordinates of each station, assuming the train is running on time. Actual delays may exist that are not reflected unless official delay data is available. For the most accurate real-time status, check the Amtrak app or the Train Status tool at amtrak.com, which pulls data from Amtrak's internal IDES tracking system.