Northeast Corridor

The Northeast Corridor (NEC) is an electrified railroad line in the Northeast megalopolis of the United States. Owned primarily by Amtrak, it runs from Boston in the north to Washington, D.C., in the south, with major stops in Providence, New Haven, Stamford, New York City, Newark, Trenton, Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore. The NEC is roughly paralleled by Interstate 95 for most of its length. The NEC is the busiest passenger rail line in the United States by both ridership and frequency, with more than 2,200 trains a day running over at least some portion of the line. The corridor is used by many Amtrak trains, including the high-speed Acela (formerly Acela Express), intercity trains, and several long-distance trains. Most of the corridor also has frequent commuter rail service, provided by the MBTA, CT Rail, Metro-North Railroad, Long Island Rail Road, New Jersey Transit, SEPTA, and MARC. While large through freights have not run on the NEC since the early 1980s, some sections still carry smaller local freights operated by CSX, Norfolk Southern, CSAO, Providence and Worcester, New York and Atlantic, and Canadian Pacific. CSX and NS partly own their routes. Long-distance Amtrak services that use the Northeast Corridor include the Cardinal, Crescent, and Silver Meteor trains, which reach 125 mph (201 km/h), as well as its Acela trains, which reach 150–160 mph (240–260 km/h) in parts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. Some express trains operated by MARC that reach 125 mph (201 km/h) also operate on the Northeast Corridor. Acela can travel the 225 mi (362 km) between New York City and Washington, D.C., in under three hours, and the 229 mi (369 km) between New York and Boston in under 3.5 hours. In 2012, Amtrak proposed improvements to enable "true" high-speed rail on the corridor, which would...