Eastern Railroad Discussion > Busiest Lines

The Atlanta thread got me curious. I've always wondered what was the busiest line into some of the cities that I hope to someday visit. So what is the busiest line into the following cities with railroad and approximate daily train counts. Chicago IL, Los Angeles CA, Jacksonville FL, Norfolk VA, Denver CO, Kansas City MO and St. Louis MO

cockaboose Wrote:
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> The Atlanta thread got me curious. I've always
> wondered what was the busiest line into some of
> the cities that I hope to someday visit. So what
> is the busiest line into the following cities with
> railroad and approximate daily train counts.
Jacksonville FL,

CSX, I would guess 50-60 trains

Uncle Joe-just east of Tampa

retcsxcfm Wrote:
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> Jacksonville FL,
>
> CSX, I would guess 50-60 trains
>
> Uncle Joe-just east of Tampa


At least to Callahan, just north of Jacksonville. South of Callahan, about 40 trains (including Amtrak) continue towards downtown Jacksonville on the Nahunta Sub. About 20 go towards Baldwin on the Callahan Sub, bypassing downtown.

Norfolk: The NS Norfolk District sees about 20-25 a day. 8 are intermodal: 227, 228, 233, 234, 236, 22A, 23G, V07 turn (Crewe, VA to Suffolk, VA/Commonwealth Railway). 2 manifest: V17, V18. The rest are pretty much all loaded and empty coal trains to/from Lamberts Point.

Andrew

Chicago would be a fairly complicated answer. The 5 candidates would have to be BNSF's ex-SF and ex-BN lines, UP's ex-C&NW mainline out towards Clinton, IA, CSX's ex-B&O line towards Garrett, IN, and Norfolk Southern's line towards Elkhart, IN.

BNSF's ex-BN line towards Aurora would almost certainly have the highest train count when including weekday Metras, so do those count?

BNSF's ex-ATSF line is quite busy across IL (much more so than either of the ex-BN lines), but about 40mi. outside of town (Logistics Park) starts to lose a lot of traffic. By the time the mainline gets to Corwith Yard in Chicago, it's not nearly as busy.

The freight count on UP's ex-C&NW West Line is higher than BNSF's ex-BN route, but has less Metra traffic.

CSX and NS are both quite busy (with NS being busier, I suspect), but both gain/lose traffic at various points in the greater Chicago area.

Tom

Re Chicago, discounting commuter trains and Amtrak, the busiest line into Chicago is the NS ex-CR NYC line, which can reach 80 trains a day incl 4 Amtks, east of Porter. AND, NS has 20 -30 on the ex- NKP to the south! CSX from the east on the old B&O would be 55-60. To the west probably UP is the busiest, maybe 55-60 road freights, with the BNSF lines, both ex CBQ and ATSF around 40 each?/ Must add the NS count east of Porter includes 4-6 CP train on rights

As For Jacksonville, the CSX sees maybe about 20 trains a day south of Callahan, north of there about 40-50 as the line from Baldwin merges at the Folkston Funnel. Another busy line is the NS's CNO&TP between Danville, KY and Emory Gap (IIRC), TN. I remember about 15 years ago about 50 to 60 trains a day on the CNO&TP.

TJ Mahan
Green Cove Springs, FL

Los Angeles is easy. The line over Cajon Pass from San Bernardino carries both UP and BNSF trains as far as Daggett, just east of Barstow. There must be close to 100 trains a day, plus a few more on the partially parallel former SP Colton Cutoff.

In the LA Basin itself, I'd guess the busiest line for freight would be the BNSF through Fullerton.

At Kansas City, the Kansas City Terminal main line from KC Union Station east is far and away the busiest railroad in the area, carrying BNSF Transcon trains plus some UP trains on trackage rights, plus KCS trains to the former Gateway Western.

At St. Louis, most of the action is in East St. Louis, especially the River Line (UP) south from Gateway Yard.