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National impact
Amtrak employs over 19,000 people. The nationwide network
of 22,000 miles of routes serves 500 communities in 46
of the United States, with some of the routes serving
communities in Canadian provinces along the United States
border. The only states which are not served by Amtrak
trains are Alaska, Hawaii, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
However, Wyoming is served by Amtrak's Thruway Motorcoaches,
as are many cities not directly accessed by rail, such
as those with water barriers, including Norfolk and Virginia
Beach in the Hampton Roads area, and San Francisco, where
trains stop across the bay in Oakland. Also, some major
cities in the U.S. are not served at all by Amtrak, such
as Las Vegas, Nevada, Nashville, Tennessee and Columbus,
Ohio.
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Northeast Corridor
One significant area, the electrified Northeast Corridor
(NEC) between Washington, D.C. and Boston via Philadelphia
and New York, is largely composed of Amtrak's own tracks.
Along the NEC and in several other areas, Amtrak owns
730 route-miles of track, including 17 tunnels consisting
of 29.7 miles of track, and 1,186 bridges (including the
famous Hell Gate Bridge) consisting of 42.5 miles of track.
These are combined with those of several state and regional
commuter agencies in what amounts to a cooperative arrangement.
(Amtrak's portion of the NEC was essentially acquired
in 1976 from Penn Central Transportation, which had gone
bankrupt and was getting out of the railroad business).
While Amtrak must negotiate shared scheduling with freight
railroads in most areas of the country, along the NEC
the coordination is between the various passenger-carrying
agencies.
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