Cities without Amtrak service

[Charles785]

I thought I would try to identify the 10 largest cities, ranked by metro population, that do not now have Amtrak service. Am I skipping over any?
1. Phoenix 4.575 million
2. Las Vegas 2.115 million
3. Nashville 2.072 million
4. Columbus 2.020 million
5. Louisville 1.396 million
6. Tulsa 1.034 million
7. Dayton 814,000
8. Boise 795,000
9. Des Moines 699,000
10. Wichita 648,000

 

[chadamfleetrailfan]

Wasn't Baton Rouge, LA in that list somewhere as well?

 

[slasher-fun]

Per Wikipedia contribuors' original research (so shouldn't be on Wikipedia...):
Las Vegas, NV
Colombus, OH
Nashville, TN
Louisville, KY
Tulsa, OK
Honolulu, HI (although that's a special case )
Knoxville, TN
Baton Rouge, LA
Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, PA
North Port – Sarasota – Bradenton, Florida – Venice, FL
Dayton/Springfield, OH
Boise, ID
Cape Coral/Fort Myers, FL
Colorado Springs, CO
Des Moines, IA
Augusta, GA

 

[BlackDiamond]

Wasn't Baton Rouge, LA in that list somewhere as well?

Greater Baton Rouge is 870,569 (2020 Census) which would place it at #7, although I don't know if the original list was just the cities or the metro areas.

 

[niemi24s]

I thought I would try to identify the 10 largest cities, ranked by metro population, that do not now have Amtrak service.

By Amtrak service are you excluding Thruway bus connections?

 

[jis]

I always take these metropolitan area population lists in decreasing population order with a huge dollop of salt. The Palm Bay - Melbourne - Titusville - Cape Canaveral Metropolitan Area has a population of some 620,000 and has no Amtrak service, but you will seldom find it in any of these learned lists.

 

[Charles785]

Yes, I should have specified I was excluding Thruway bus connections and I was focusing on the contiguous 48 states.

And from the above comments I see I missed at least seven metro areas that could have been in the top ten. Maybe a top twenty list would now be interesting.

 

[moselman66]

Here's the top 100 from Wiki based on 2022 metro popuations (MSA, not the higher-order CSA) showing who is missing an Amtrak stop in their urban core and also within their official metro bounds. Because Maricopa is within a county (Pinal) included in the Phoenix MSA its metro area is not unserved even though Amtrak is remote to the main urban aread of PHX. On the flipside because places like Winston-Salem and Ogden are officially their own metro areas and no trains stop there, they are "no service" in spite of nearby Salt Lake and Greensboro. A change to census definition would alter that status of places like that, of course.

All 100 won't fit in one message so let's set how many it takes. Let me know if I clearly misclassified any.

Rank	2022est	Urban Area	Metro
1	19,557,311			New York–Newark–Jersey City, NY-NJ MSA
2	12,872,322			Los Angeles–Long Beach–Anaheim, CA MSA
3	9,274,140			Chicago–Naperville–Elgin, IL-IN MSA
4	7,943,685			Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington, TX MSA
5	7,368,466			Houston–Pasadena–The Woodlands, TX MSA
6	6,265,183			Washington–Arlington–Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV MSA
7	6,241,164			Philadelphia–Camden–Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD MSA
8	6,237,435			Atlanta–Sandy Springs–Roswell, GA MSA
9	6,139,340			Miami–Fort Lauderdale–West Palm Beach, FL MSA
10	5,015,678	No	Yes (Maricopa)	Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, AZ MSA
11	4,900,550			Boston–Cambridge–Newton, MA-NH MSA
12	4,667,558			Riverside–San Bernardino–Ontario, CA MSA
13	4,579,599			San Francisco–Oakland–Fremont, CA MSA
14	4,345,761			Detroit–Warren–Dearborn, MI MSA
15	4,034,248			Seattle–Tacoma–Bellevue, WA MSA
16	3,693,729			Minneapolis–St. Paul–Bloomington, MN-WI MSA
17	3,290,730			Tampa–St. Petersburg–Clearwater, FL MSA
18	3,276,208			San Diego–Chula Vista–Carlsbad, CA MSA
19	2,985,871			Denver–Aurora–Centennial, CO MSA
20	2,835,672			Baltimore–Columbia–Towson, MD MSA
21	2,801,319			St. Louis, MO-IL MSA
22	2,764,182			Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, FL MSA
23	2,756,069			Charlotte–Concord–Gastonia, NC-SC MSA
24	2,655,342			San Antonio–New Braunfels, TX MSA
25	2,509,489			Portland–Vancouver–Hillsboro, OR-WA MSA
26	2,434,021			Pittsburgh, PA MSA
27	2,421,115			Austin–Round Rock–San Marcos, TX MSA
28	2,416,702			Sacramento–Roseville–Folsom, CA MSA
29	2,322,985	No	No	Las Vegas–Henderson–North Las Vegas, NV MSA
30	2,258,099			Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN MSA
31	2,209,494			Kansas City, MO-KS MSA
32	2,161,511	No	No	Columbus, OH MSA
33	2,160,146			Cleveland, OH MSA
34	2,119,839			Indianapolis–Carmel–Greenwood, IN MSA
35	2,072,283	No	No	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN MSA
36	1,938,524			San Jose–Sunnyvale–Santa Clara, CA MSA
37	1,787,188			Virginia Beach–Chesapeake–Norfolk, VA-NC MSA
38	1,675,668			Jacksonville, FL MSA
39	1,673,802			Providence–Warwick, RI-MA MSA
40	1,559,792			Milwaukee–Waukesha, WI MSA
41	1,484,338			Raleigh–Cary, NC MSA
42	1,459,380			Oklahoma City, OK MSA
43	1,361,946	No	No	Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN MSA
44	1,339,855			Memphis, TN-MS-AR MSA
45	1,339,182			Richmond, VA MSA
46	1,266,191			Salt Lake City–Murray, UT MSA
47	1,181,196			Birmingham, AL MSA
48	1,175,446			Fresno, CA MSA
49	1,161,192			Buffalo–Cheektowaga, NY MSA
50	1,158,069			Hartford–West Hartford–East Hartford, CT MSA

 

[moselman66]

Here's 51-100

51	1,157,752			Grand Rapids–Wyoming–Kentwood, MI MSA
52	1,057,597			Tucson, AZ MSA
53	1,056,701			Rochester, NY MSA
54	1,034,123	No	No	Tulsa, OK MSA
55	995,638	No	No	Urban Honolulu, HI MSA
56	976,671			Omaha, NE-IA MSA
57	972,913			New Orleans–Metairie, LA MSA
58	958,958			Greenville–Anderson–Greer, SC MSA
59	950,976			Bridgeport–Stamford–Danbury, CT MSA
60	932,245	No	No	Knoxville, TN MSA
61	919,543			Albuquerque, NM MSA
62	916,108			Bakersfield–Delano, CA MSA
63	904,617			Albany–Schenectady–Troy, NY MSA
64	891,411	No	No	North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, FL MSA
65	888,367	No	No	McAllen–Edinburg–Mission, TX MSA
66	873,060	No	No	Baton Rouge, LA MSA
67	872,195			El Paso, TX MSA
68	871,229	No	No	Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton, PA-NJ MSA
69	862,927			Worcester, MA MSA
70	847,686			Columbia, SC MSA
71	832,605			Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura, CA MSA
72	830,529			Charleston–North Charleston, SC MSA
73	822,453	No	No	Cape Coral–Fort Myers, FL MSA
74	812,595	No	No	Dayton–Kettering–Beavercreek, OH MSA
75	811,336	No	No	Boise City, ID MSA
76	793,229			Stockton–Lodi, CA MSA
77	787,404			Lakeland–Winter Haven, FL MSA
78	784,101			Greensboro–High Point, NC MSA
79	765,424	No	No	Colorado Springs, CO MSA
80	757,615			Little Rock–North Little Rock–Conway, AR MSA
81	729,053	No	No	Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA MSA
82	715,001			Provo–Orem–Lehi, UT MSA
83	705,897			Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL MSA
84	703,486			Kiryas Joel–Poughkeepsie–Newburgh, NY MSA
85	697,627	No	No	Akron, OH MSA
86	688,471	No	No	Winston-Salem, NC MSA
87	687,077	No	Yes (Columbus)	Madison, WI MSA
88	653,633			Syracuse, NY MSA
89	652,341	No	No	Ogden, UT MSA
90	650,039	No	No	Wichita, KS MSA
91	630,693	No	No	Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, FL MSA
92	624,083	No	No	Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC MSA
93	610,904			Jackson, MS MSA
94	603,493			Harrisburg–Carlisle, PA MSA
95	602,407			Durham–Chapel Hill, NC MSA
96	600,406			Toledo, OH MSA
97	597,919			Spokane–Spokane Valley, WA MSA
98	576,403	No	No	Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR MSA
99	574,507	No	No	Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA
100	573,244			New Haven, CT MSA

 

[moselman66]

Specific to the original question, these are the most populous metro areas withou and Amtrak stop. Technically PHX and MSN might arugably be removed because of a rural stop away from the urban center but within the metro area.

It's just over 1/4 of the largest metros not served by Amtrak -- if you want to exclude Honolulu based on geography it would still be 26 of 100 since the next in line to add to the list (#101 Scranton) is also not currently served.

Rank	2022est	Urban Area	Metro		Overall Rank
1	5,015,678	No	Yes (Maricopa)	Phoenix–Mesa–Chandler, AZ MSA	10
2	2,322,985	No	No	Las Vegas–Henderson–North Las Vegas, NV MSA	29
3	2,161,511	No	No	Columbus, OH MSA	32
4	2,072,283	No	No	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN MSA	35
5	1,361,946	No	No	Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN MSA	43
6	1,034,123	No	No	Tulsa, OK MSA	54
7	995,638	No	No	Urban Honolulu, HI MSA	55
8	932,245	No	No	Knoxville, TN MSA	60
9	891,411	No	No	North Port–Bradenton–Sarasota, FL MSA	64
10	888,367	No	No	McAllen–Edinburg–Mission, TX MSA	65
11	873,060	No	No	Baton Rouge, LA MSA	66
12	871,229	No	No	Allentown–Bethlehem–Easton, PA-NJ MSA	68
13	822,453	No	No	Cape Coral–Fort Myers, FL MSA	73
14	812,595	No	No	Dayton–Kettering–Beavercreek, OH MSA	74
15	811,336	No	No	Boise City, ID MSA	75
16	765,424	No	No	Colorado Springs, CO MSA	79
17	729,053	No	No	Des Moines–West Des Moines, IA MSA	81
18	697,627	No	No	Akron, OH MSA	85
19	688,471	No	No	Winston-Salem, NC MSA	86
20	687,077	No	Yes (Columbus)	Madison, WI MSA	87
21	652,341	No	No	Ogden, UT MSA	89
22	650,039	No	No	Wichita, KS MSA	90
23	630,693	No	No	Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, FL MSA	91
24	624,083	No	No	Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC MSA	92
25	576,403	No	No	Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers, AR MSA	98
26	574,507	No	No	Chattanooga, TN-GA MSA	99

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I DEMAND Amtrak service to Hawaii within four years!

(it can be via the SSAmtrak)

 

[MARC Rider]

I DEMAND Amtrak service to Hawaii within four years!

(it can be via the SSAmtrak)

Easy-peasy. An Amtrak Thruway flight connecting with the Pacific Surfliner at the Burbank, CA airport, where there's a station.

 

[Bonser]

I always take these metropolitan area population lists in decreasing population order with a huge dollop of salt. The Palm Bay - Melbourne - Titusville - Cape Canaveral Metropolitan Area has a population of some 620,000 and has no Amtrak service, but you will seldom find it in any of these learned lists.

Might be because there is no real identifiable central city in that region.

 

[Willbridge]

I DEMAND Amtrak service to Hawaii within four years!

(it can be via the SSAmtrak)

It already was part of the U.S. rail system in 1916 when the S.S. Great Northern was removed from the money-losing Flavel (Astoria) <>San Francisco run and was put on the California<>Honolulu run. That left only the S.S. Northern Pacific to harass the SP.