Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study

The Amtrak Daily Long-Distance Service Study was created by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to be completed by the Federal Railroad Administration. Its purpose is to evaluate the restoration and addition of discontinued and new long-distance passenger services, as well as the upgrading of tri-weekly long-distance services to daily operation.

History
In November 2021, Congress passed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Section 22214 of the law orders the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to study the restoration of all long-distance Amtrak routes that had been discontinued, daily service on non-daily trains (the and ), and the possibility of new long-distance routes—particularly those that were discontinued upon the formation of Amtrak. The criteria for new routes under consideration is that they "link and serve large and small communities as part of a regional rail network", "advance the economic and social well-being of rural areas of the United States", "provide enhanced connectivity for the national long-distance passenger rail system", and "reflect public engagement and local and regional support for restored passenger rail service".

Work on the Long-Distance Service Study began in September 2022.

In April 2023, the FRA released information that they had successfully held a series of six working group meetings during the previous February where they met with stakeholders and worked to review the study's requirements and to evaluate discontinued services. Included in the regional reports was information about current LD routes trip origin-destinatinaion pairs, as well as similar information for proposed routes. Materials from the meetings indicated that the FRA was studying 18 discontinued long-distance Amtrak routes, as well as four that were discontinued on Amtrak's creation in 1971: the City of Miami, George Washington, Pan-American, and San Francisco Chief.

In August 2023, the FRA released their second round of meeting materials.

In November 2023, the FRA released their interim report to congress describing their current progress in the study.

In February 2024, the FRA released its third round of meeting materials which included a preferred draft network of fifteen new long-distance routes. The plan would increase the coverage of the long-distance Amtrak network by 23,200 route miles, reaching an additional 45 million population, 61 metropolitan statistical areas, 24 congressional districts, twelve National Park Service sites, and two states (Wyoming and South Dakota). Another round of public input will take place before the final set of actions are recommended to Congress in spring 2024.