Rail City's Rank ? ? ?

[Anonymous]

OK, I think we will all agree that CHICAGO is the # 1 rail city in the United States. Is Chicago the # 1 city when you factor in Canada? Kansas City is the # 2 city. But again if we factor in Canada will that change?

What are the rankings for the top 10 cities in North American? Does Mexico City come into the top ten? I would be curious to see how Montreal and other Canadian cities fit into the top 10.

Now I am not trying to start a Canadian American war. I simply want to know the rank of the major rail cities and how Mexico fits into the equation. So guys and gals be nice.

[Anonymous]

St. Louis, MO is a VERY, VERY close 3rd, and may become 2nd again with a new bridge over the Mississippi "in the works" for Uncle Pete. This would create a direct route, and would avoid the T.R.R.A.

[daveklepper]

Toronto was second until St. Louis opened its light rail system, which adds another dimension that Toronto always had. Toronto would still be ahead except that five of the six biggies serve St. Louis (only CPR doesn't, if I am correct) plus several regionals giving more variety than Toronto despite Toronto's heavy rail RT and Go Transit. At least that is my opinion. Of course, in the old days, St. Louis was second with a vast number of independent railroads, the Illinois Terminal interurban (itself having lots of variety), local streetcars old and new, and steam commuter rail on Missouri Pacific and possibly other railroads as well. There were articulated diesel streamliners and all the variety of diesel and steam power one could want. Los Angeles seems to be making a comback with all the investment in port traffic and variety of freight it is attracting. Maybe it is now no. 3. And it now has light rail and heavy RT and lots of commuter trains too. Dave Klepper

[Anonymous]

I saw a list somewhere about the American cities. I don't think it included the Canadian cities though. I was hopeing someone here in the forums might know a ranking of North American Cities as viewed from a rail perspective.

[Anonymous]

What criteria did you want to use? Are you looking for something objective? Some possibilities are number of train starts and/or trains passing through per year, or total tonnage per year.

[tree68]

I foresee an article in Trains......

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Mark W. Hemphill

What criteria did you want to use? Are you looking for something objective? Some possibilities are number of train starts and/or trains passing through per year, or total tonnage per year.

Well now that does pose a question. What criteria has been used in the past? The number of trains, the number of cars, tonage, or a point system based on all of those to determine the leading cities. I saw a list or an article somewhere recently, I wonder what criteria they used? I would like to see both Mexico and Canada figured into the mix so we could get a perspective of what the leading cities are. Here in North Little Rock there are a number of rail lines through the city and a large amount of traffic on them. North Little Rock/Little Rock is a major crossroad in this area. I would wager that Little Rock/North Little Rock is the number one rail city in Arkansas. Pine Bluff, Fort Smith/Van Buren, and Texarkana would also have a good traffic base but I don't think they have as much as LR/NLR.

I wonder how Montreal and Toronto compare to Chicago? Are there other Canadian cities that should be considered? Inquiring minds want to know. [8D] [?]

[Big_Boy_4005]

How about the number of class 1 railroads still serving the area. I will always vote for the Twin Cities if this is going to be a popularity contest. The Twin Cities have some of the best diversity of railroads outside of Chicago, with BNSF, CP, UP and CN. And now it sounds like UP is opening up it's Chicago to St Paul tracks to NS and CSX trains though this service will be limited. As someone who models this area, I can buy engines with any modern roadname on them, and not have to worry if they could be seen here.

[vsmith]

LA is somewhere between Chicago and any city without rail service IMO. There arent many good watching sites where you dont risk getting mugged at. There is really only two corridors now worth watching (BNSF down thru Fullerton or UP thru Pomona, then add the we went from having UP, SF and SP to just UP and BNSF.

[oltmannd]

I'd think a good railfan measure for freight would be road freight train starts. Trying to count locals, transfer jobs, and yard jobs is hard to do and hard to interpret. But, would a run-thru count as two trains?

For passenger, just count train starts.

If you totalled them by Metropolitan area, it would be interesting to see if NYC would edge out Chicago. Metro North, LIRR and NJT run a ton of trains.....

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by oltmannd

I'd think a good railfan measure for freight would be road freight train starts. Trying to count locals, transfer jobs, and yard jobs is hard to do and hard to interpret. But, would a run-thru count as two trains?

For passenger, just count train starts.

If you totalled them by Metropolitan area, it would be interesting to see if NYC would edge out Chicago. Metro North, LIRR and NJT run a ton of trains.....

Actually I hadn't even thought about passenger trains (even though I like them). So then again we might need two catagories--one for freight only and another for freight and passenger. I agree with Larry (Tree), I think we need a good indept article in Trains about this. [;)] [:D]

Goody, goody, gun drops, I can't wait ! ! ! [:D]

[dharmon]

You are all wrong. The #1 rail city is Van Horn, Texas just west of where I-10 and I-20 meet. A UP train every ten minutes whether you need it or not. Our motel was 100 yards from the mainline....good for raifan needs, bad for rest.

[rrnut282]

If you use tonnage carried for freight, you won't have to worry about the is it a local or a road job question. BTW have you taken a look at the RR Traffic Atlas? It shows rail lines by the tonnage (MGT), the busier the line the wider it's printed on the page. You could then look at the web entering each city to get an idea of the tonnage (and number of trains) passing through.

[Anonymous]

CHICAGO IS #1 ST. LOUIS #2 KANSAS CITY #3 MINNEAPOLIS #4 MEMPHIS #5

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