Making a List, Checking it Twice

Yesterday, I recounted the 13 rail systems I added to my "list" this year.

Over the past few years, I've been trying to ride each rail transit system in the United States. And I've made quite a bit of headway, too.

Below is the list of American systems I've ridden (in bold). I've organized them by mode. Within each mode, the year I first rode the mode is in parentheses. Non-bolded, red entries are systems I have not yet ridden.

The list groups lines within the same modal category operated by the same transit operator together. For example, I consider the Staten Island Railroad to be a part of the New York City subway (heavy rail).

Altogether, I've ridden 12 of the 13 (92%) American heavy rail systems, 18 of 25 (72%) of light rail systems, and 19 of 23 (83%) of commuter rail systems. Additionally, I've ridden 5 people mover/miscellaneous systems, all 3 modern vehicle streetcar systems, and 5 heritage/original streetcar systems.

Heavy Rail

1. Atlanta - MARTA (circa 1993)
2. Washington - Metro (1994)
3. Boston - "T" (2002)
4. San Francisco - BART (2006)
5. Chicago - "L" (2007)
6. Baltimore - Metro Subway (2007)
7. Philadelphia - BSS/MFSE (2007)
8. Philadelphia - PATCO (2007)
9. Miami - Metrorail (2007)
10. NY/NJ - PATH (2008)
11. New York - NYC Subway (2008)
12. Los Angeles - Metro (2010)
13. Cleveland - Rapid (not yet ridden)

Light Rail

1. Pittsburgh - "T" (2002)
2. Boston - "T" (2002)
3. Dallas - DART (2005)
4. Portland - MAX (2006)
5. San Francisco - Muni Metro (2006)
6. Baltimore - Light Rail (2007)
7. Philadelphia - light rail (2007)
8. Camden - River Line (2008)
9. Newark - Light Rail/City Subway (2008)
10. San Jose - Light Rail (2008)
11. Sacramento - Light Rail (2008)
12. Minneapolis - Hiawatha Line (2008)
13. Charlotte - Lynx Light Rail (2008)
14. Jersey City - Hudson/Bergen LRT (2009)
15. Los Angeles - Metro (2010)
16. Oceanside - Sprinter (2010)
17. San Diego - Trolley (2010)
18. Seattle - Link Light Rail (2010)
19. Buffalo - Metrorail (not yet ridden)
20. Cleveland - light rail (not yet ridden)
21. Denver - TheRide (not yet ridden)
22. Houston - MetroRail (not yet ridden)
23. Phoenix - MetroRail (not yet ridden)
24. Salt Lake City - TRAX (not yet ridden)
25. St. Louis - MetroLink (not yet ridden)
26. Norfolk - The Tide (opens 2011)

Commuter Rail

1. Washington - MARC (1994)
2. Dallas - Trinity Railway Express (2005)
3. Chicago - Metra (2006)
4. Philadelphia - SEPTA Regional Rail (2007)
5. Miami - Tri-Rail (2007)
6. Washington - Virginia Railway Express (2008)
7. New Jersey - NJT commuter rail (2008)
8. San Francisco - Caltrain (2008)
9. San Jose - Altamont Commuter Express (2008)
10. Nashville - Music City Star (2009)
11. New York - Metro-North (2009)
12. New York - Long Island Railroad (2009)
13. New Haven - Shore Line East (2009)
14. Boston - MBTA commuter rail (2009)
15. Los Angeles - Metrolink (2010)
16. San Diego - Coaster (2010)
17. Seattle - Sounder (2010)
18. Portland - Westside Express Service (2010)
19. Chicago - NICTD South Shore Line (2010)
20. Austin - Capital MetroRail (not yet ridden)
21. Salt Lake City - Frontrunner (not yet ridden)
22. Minneapolis - Northstar (not yet ridden)
23. Albuquerque - Railrunner (not yet ridden)
24. Dallas - A-Train (opens 2011)

AGT/Miscellaneous

As a general rule, I don't count fully self-contained people movers toward this list, although I do ride many of them. For instance, I've lost count of the times I've ridden the Atlanta Airport APM, but I don't count it, since it is entirely within the airport. This list is probably missing several which I have not ridden and am either unaware of or forgot to mention.

1. Miami - Metromover (2oo7)
2. Philadelphia - Norristown High-Speed Line (2008)
3. New York - AirTrain JFK (2009)
4. Morgantown - WVU PRT (2010)
5. Seattle - Seattle Center Monorail (2010)
6. AirTrain Newark (not yet ridden)
7. Detroit - Peoplemover (not yet ridden)
8. Las Colinas (Dallas) - PRT (not yet ridden)
9. Las Vegas - Monorail (not yet ridden)
10. Jacksonville - Skyway (not yet ridden) added, thanks IMGoph

Streetcar

I've further sub-categorized streetcars into modern, heritage, and original. Heritage includes lines that use faux-heritage cars, even ones built specifically for the line. Original lines refer to lines that never closed permanently but were not modernized into LRT.

I don't count trolley museums or seasonal/part-time services.

1. Dallas - McKinney Ave. Trolley (2005) heritage
2. Portland - Portland Streetcar (2006) modern
3. San Francisco - Cable Cars (2006) cable car
4. San Francisco - F Line (2006) heritage
5. Charlotte - Charlotte Trolley (2009) heritage
6. Boston - Mattapan High-Speed Line (2009) original
7. Seattle - Seattle Streetcar (2010) modern
8. Tacoma - Tacoma Link (2010) modern
9. Kenosha - Kenosha Streetcars [heritage] (not yet ridden)
10. Little Rock - River Rail Streetcar [heritage] (not yet ridden)
11. Memphis - MATA Trolley [heritage] (not yet ridden)
12. New Orleans - streetcars [original] (not yet ridden)
13. Philadelphia - Girard Line [original] (not yet ridden)
14. Savannah - River Street Streetcar [original] (not yet ridden)
15. Tampa - TECO Line Streetcar [heritage] (not yet ridden)

I've made a lot of progress since I first boarded MARTA somewhere around age 8. I didn't really start trying to ride them all until about 2006, or so.

Anyway, if it's in red (or blue), I intend to ride it one day. I'm hoping to polish off Cleveland (and heavy rail) in 2011, along with a few others.

And of course, as I travel, I'll re-ride many of those I've already checked off. After all, it's the journey that matters, not the destination.