what's the # of overall amtrak miles....

[boratwanksta]

i've kept wanting to ask this question on this board for quite some time, but have kept forgetting to do so until now. anyway, how many miles overall have you ridden on Amtrak? i realize a few of you do have the # of miles you've ridden in your signatures, but i want to get a better idea myself if this board is mostly made up of riders that've heavily ridden Amtrak, a mix between light riders, moderate riders, and heavy riders, or mainly low/moderate riders. and as usual, the only rules i have about this is that i'd only calculate the number of miles you've ridden based on the portions of Amtrak you've ridden on(and no double-counting any portions of rail you've ridden as part of a round-trip leg on a trip back to a starting point, since that's only retracing the rail route one's ridden). i will add though that i'll allow milage to count for anyone who's ridden aboard Amtrak over any portions where it usually doesn't run(i.e. California Zephyr being rerouted from Utah to Denver over the Union Pacific Wyoming line, Coast Starlight reroute between L.A. and Bakersfield and to points north along the usual Amtrak San Joaquin line, etc...). and of course, you can count as milage any trips along any routes that Amtrak no longer runs(i.e. Desert Wind, Floridian, etc.). Canada rail milage can obviously only be listed if its part of a cross-border Amtrak/VIA service, or if its part of cross-border regular Amtrak-only service(i.e. Cascades or Adirondack).

with those rules said, i'll start this thread out, by listing each of the portions of Amtrak milage i've ridden(and would like to see others follow this format). lol, i'm sure others will greatly look at me as an amateur Amtrak rider, based on how much(or little, to some) of the system i've ridden. regardless though of how you interpret the amount of milage i've ridden, i'm betting this'll be an interesting thread.

Chicago to Denver, California Zephyr: 1,038 miles

Chicago to Ann Arbor, MI, Wolverine: 243 miles

Chicago to Bloomington-Normal, IL, State House/various trains: 124 miles

total: 1405 miles(and knowing i'll probably do a trip somewhere new and soon this year to move my milage count upwards)

 

[saxman]

Well I'm not going to subtract out the round-trip miles I've done, because I simply have dozens of round-trips on Amtrak. And I think they should be counted anyway, simply because thats more experience we've had. Sure wish my car subtracted miles on my return trips from work..haha. But as you can see my signature. It's over 45,000 miles for me.

Chris

 

[Anthony]

there used to be a service that calculated all of this stuff... ^_^

 

[GG-1]

there used to be a service that calculated all of this stuff...   ^_^

Aloha Anthony

Hope your answer doesn't meen you have given up B) :huh:

 

[boratwanksta]

there used to be a service that calculated all of this stuff...   ^_^

MileTrak is still up at http://www.miletrak.com/miletrak.php , though i know it likely doesn't have certain newer stations that Amtrak opened up in recent years(i.e. the Milwaukee Airport rail station), and still lists plenty of stations that Amtrak closed due to lack of ridership in recent years(i.e. Hamilton, OH, or Sanford, FL for NY-Florida trains(and excluding Auto Train)).

as for roundtrips(though i'd still like to continue my preference of asking this question as just calculating different rail portions of Amtrak you've ridden, instead of repeat milage), that would put me at least just over 2000 miles(and at least at 2,020 miles, as i forget how many times i've ridden between Bloomington-Normal and Chicago on the train to commute between school and home). i only rode the California Zephyr once, so that's why(if you count roundtrips) why i wouldn't be able to recount that milage anyway. only more calculated this up, since saxman included roundtrips in his milage count.

 

[battalion51]

As an estimate I'm going to say somewhere in the ballpark of 54,000-55,000. It'd take me awhile to take out my Tri-Rail and MNRR miles.

Longest single trip 1522 miles (Silver Star NYP-MIA)

Longest continuous Itinerary 2140 miles (FTL-JAX-NOL-CHI-MKE-CHI)

 

[Anthony]

there used to be a service that calculated all of this stuff...   ^_^

MileTrak is still up at http://www.miletrak.com/miletrak.php , though i know it likely doesn't have certain newer stations that Amtrak opened up in recent years(i.e. the Milwaukee Airport rail station), and still lists plenty of stations that Amtrak closed due to lack of ridership in recent years(i.e. Hamilton, OH, or Sanford, FL for NY-Florida trains(and excluding Auto Train)).

as for roundtrips(though i'd still like to continue my preference of asking this question as just calculating different rail portions of Amtrak you've ridden, instead of repeat milage), that would put me at least just over 2000 miles(and at least at 2,020 miles, as i forget how many times i've ridden between Bloomington-Normal and Chicago on the train to commute between school and home). i only rode the California Zephyr once, so that's why(if you count roundtrips) why i wouldn't be able to recount that milage anyway. only more calculated this up, since saxman included roundtrips in his milage count.

oh, I was referring to the "classic" feature that tracks individual trips... like http://anthony.users.miletrak.com/ (this hasn't been updated in a long time, so I've taken a bunch of trips since)

Just wait -- we'll all have some discontinued route information at our disposal later this year after a few things are approved. B) (and then if there's interest, some of them can be loaded into miletrak for a re-opening)

(note: I know that I've mentioned a lot of things about this project that would happen and then didn't, but I'm not spending 40 hours per week this summer for nothing...)

 

[Amtrak Watcher]

Looking back over my records, it is 29,000 miles a year on average. 2005 saw me log 43,000. So far in 2006, I’m at only 4,500 miles after my trip on the Texas Eagle from CHI to DAL tomorrow, 20 July. I’ve been keeping track (sort of) since 2000, which means about 175,000 miles.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

I don't have the info with me, but it is about 147,000 total all rail. Of that about 67,000 Amtrak. Other is pre-Amtrak and Canadian.

 

[denmarks]

It seems like what is being asked is what portion of the complete Amtrak system you have ridden. This would be much smaller than total miles due to taking the same trip more than once. Maybe the better question is who has ridden the most unique routes. Many train personel on this board may have ridden the same route scores of times but you are asking that it only be counted as a single one way trip!

 

[battalion51]

Interesting idea Dennis, and a very valid one at that. I'd say probably 2/3 of my mileage came over the same 350 miles of track. My most unique piece of trackage would probably be the NS Port Road from Harrisburg to Perryville behind the PRR E-8's during the 2003 NRHS Convention.

 

[boratwanksta]

It seems like what is being asked is what portion of the complete Amtrak system you have ridden. This would be much smaller than total miles due to taking the same trip more than once. Maybe the better question is who has ridden the most unique routes. Many train personel on this board may have ridden the same route scores of times but you are asking that it only be counted as a single one way trip!

i see you're obviously the closest towards interpreting my question correctly. the odd thing was, i didn't realize that most people who calculated the total number of miles they've ridden on Amtrak calculated repeat milage over certain routes as part of their total milage(which was why i recalculated my milage number after looking at saxman's post, so i could compare my milage against others who count repeat trips as part of their overall milage, which i don't). unfortunately, i feared correctly that most don't calculate their Amtrak milage in terms of different portions of track they've ridden, but in terms of how many trips they've done over rail(even say, if most of one's milage is over the same portion of track, or as part of a round trip).

i think you're right that maybe i should've asked instead of milage, the number of different routes you've ridden that Amtrak runs trains over. still, i'd like to continue this thread as how i worded my question about Amtrak milage to be as, without counting repeat or round-trip portions of Amtrak trips.

 

[RailFanLNK]

My train experience began just this year. On March 3rd, my girlfriend and I took the CZ from Lincoln NE to Emeryvile CA. Total miles one way: 1880 miles. We only went one way.

My second trip Memorial Day Weekend was from Lincoln to Glenwood Springs RT, total miles: 1356 miles. I have now ridden 3,236 miles on Amtrak and have another trip to Glenwood Springs booked on Labor Day and another ticket purchased for a solo (Al goes on his own for 3 days) trip to Winter Park/Fraser CO in October. Yes, all my trips have been on the Zephyr, but I am quickly accumulating AGR points and plan on a trip in April 2007 on the Empire Builder from Fargo to Seattle and back.

 

[battalion51]

Well you do have to realize that the total number of miles traveled (round trips, multiple trips, etc.) does reflect seasoning. For example, let's say I'd only traveled on Tri-Rail for the 63 miles from West Palm to Metrorail/Tri-Rail transfer, but I do this on a daily basis. Meanwhile a tourist may cover the entire country for let's say 8,000 miles. So while that tourist has covered more ground, the Tri-Rail commuter who does it day in day out will know a whole heck more about their operation and what's going on than that tourist.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

On the subject of distinct route miles, vs. actual travel miles, I used to make that distinction in my own record keeping. Unfortunately I lost track of the single route mileage---guess I will have to go back and reconstruct it someday. But my travel miles I have kept up with, at 147,000. Maybe my route miles are about 1/4 that,, don't really know.

As to diffrerent routes , I have been on most of them, and some which (pre-Amtrak) no longer exist. Some I have been on under older names, such as San Diegans, as opposed to Pacific Surfliner.

Of course there is the great "Frimbo", Roger Whitaker, longtime staffer a the New Yorker. He was said to be the worlds greatest train buff. I think he logged in at about 3 million miles. But I have also heard that he counted absolutely every inch of rail, no matter how many times,including---not kidding here-----roller coasters!!

 

[battalion51]

The other challenge to counting each route individually (if you want to be super precise) is you run into overlap near major terminals. An easy example of this is the Crescent and Silver Service. Two very different routes, but they share the NEC. So you'd have to figure out at which CP the routes split, how far that is from the initial terminal, etc. Or something more challenging like the Crescent and Carolinian/Piedmont. From Greensboro (I believe) to Charlotte they share trackage, same deal. Or how about each train into and out of Chicago sharing tracks into and out of CUS with at least one other train. It gets pretty messy as you can tell.

 

[Bill Haithcoat]

The other challenge to counting each route individually (if you want to be super precise) is you run into overlap near major terminals. An easy example of this is the Crescent and Silver Service. Two very different routes, but they share the NEC. So you'd have to figure out at which CP the routes split, how far that is from the initial terminal, etc. Or something more challenging like the Crescent and Carolinian/Piedmont. From Greensboro (I believe) to Charlotte they share trackage, same deal. Or how about each train into and out of Chicago sharing tracks into and out of CUS with at least one other train. It gets pretty messy as you can tell.

On the example about the Crescent and SIlver Service, Sean, I definately would not count the NEC twice. The mileage I do have(but have not kept up with) on actual route miles definately would not have counted the NEC twice, not would I duplicate the Greensboro to Charlotte mileage.

As to CUS, on the other hand,(or any other station) there is no way at all I would attempt to break that down to avoid re-count. I would go out of what little mind I have if I attempted that.

And then there are the slight adjustments to a long distance route that have taken place over the years. If, dreaming up an example, I had ridden the EB twice in my life, many years between rides, and maybe the route has changed by 50 miles somewhere or other (I am making this up --not sure of exact info ). then I would have to be super careful to count the mileage differently each trip and not just duplicate.