List of major cities in U.S. lacking inter-city rail service

Several major cities and regional business centers in the continental United States lack Amtrak or some form of inter-city passenger rail service. Four of these metropolitan areas boast more than one million residents. However, some of these cities may be served by Thruway Motorcoach. Other than the service provided by the Alaska Railroad, there is no U.S. based long-distance passenger rail service outside of 46 of the contiguous states and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, and Quebec. There is no inter-city passenger rail service to the states of South Dakota or Wyoming. For purposes of this list, a city is considered served if it is within 30 miles of an Amtrak or other inter-city passenger rail station. Unless otherwise noted, the provider of the last passenger service noted in each of the following cities was Amtrak. A partial list of the cities with a population of over 100,000 that are not served by some form of inter-city rail service is as follows (in order by decreasing population of metropolitan area):

In addition, the following cities are not directly served by inter-city rail service, but have a rail station within 30 miles of the city. Other cities are not served directly due to inconvenient water barriers:
 * San Francisco, California - Last had direct intercity service in 1971, when the Coast Daylight was rerouted to Oakland with the formation of Amtrak. That service was later rerouted to continue north to Portland and renamed the Coast Starlight. Trains stop across San Francisco Bay in Oakland and Emeryville. Whereas trains once went from Oakland to San Francisco, they had been replaced by auto traffic by the 1950s. The BART commuter heavy rail system operates a trans-bay tube underneath the bay with connections in Richmond, Oakland and Emeryville.  Caltrain connects to Amtrak in San Jose. However, since the late 1990s, Amtrak has worked on plans to resume the Coast Daylight from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Proposals to add a San Francisco stop to the San Jose-Sacramento Capitol Corridor are also being seriously considered.
 * St. Petersburg, Florida - trains stop across Tampa Bay in Tampa. Trains had previously crossed the bay into St. Petersburg. The city lost direct service across the bay when CSX lacked adequate funds to maintain the bridge across the bay. There is Thruway Bus Service at 110th Avenue north of City Limits off US19 to Tampa Union Station (PSTA local bus route 34 passes near this location). Otherwise the only other method of transportation is taxi. The TECO Line Streetcar System and HART buses both do not connect with the two areas, although express bus service exists between PSTA and HART.

Amtrak provides no service to Mexico. From 1973 to 1981 Amtrak operated the Inter-American, which allowed for transfers between Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas for connecting service with the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México. The closest Amtrak service to Mexico may be found at stations along the western portion of the Sunset Limited and southwestern portion of the Texas Eagle in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California; as well as the Pacific Surfliner service to Union Station in San Diego.

Phoenix, Arizona is served via Thruway Motorcoach from the Southwest Chief at Flagstaff, Arizona. The Sunset Limited stops three times a week at Maricopa, roughly 30 mi south of the city; private taxis and the Maricopa MAX express bus are the only transportation from there to metro Phoenix, although MAX bus schedules do not coincide with Amtrak, which arrives during the night. Phoenix lost direct service in June 1996 after Southern Pacific (now part of the Union Pacific) threatened to abandon the line from Yuma.

Amtrak has studied rail lines formerly canceled that could renew service to some cities. Cities involved include Boise, Mobile, Tallahassee, the Quad Cities (four adjoining cities in northwest Illinois and southeastern Iowa), Billings, and Wichita. Proposals for high-speed rail could also restore service for several cities. Other services Amtrak could restore include the Pioneer (serving Chicago-Denver-Seattle via the California Zephyr), the Black Hawk (Chicago-Dubuque, eastern Iowa), the North Coast Hiawatha (serving Chicago-Fargo-Seattle via the Montana Rail Link), and the New Orleans-Orlando segment of the Sunset Limited.