Hitchhiker's Guide To Amtrak

This is a list and description of useful tools for tracking the progress of Amtrak trains.

Phone
Amtrak Reservations Dial 800-USA-RAIL (800-872-7245). Talk to Julie, Amtrak's automated agent, or a real agent. They can find your train or make a reservation for you.

Web
Amtrak.com Click on the status tab and fill in the blanks to get the status for you train. The status only stays on-line for about five days.

Track A Train will allow you to pinpoint on a map where a train is, in near real time.
Amtrak Status Maps Regional maps show all of the trains in that region and their status, at a glance. Click on a train to show details of a train's performance. Archives go back several years.
Amtrak Location Map Better version of Amtrak's Track-A-Train. This one's easy to get to, too.

Text/Email
Amtrak.com When you make a reservation, you will be offered the option to be notified by email/text if your train is a minimum of 30 minutes late.
Amtrak Alerts

Amtrak NEC Alerts
Amtrak Twitter feeds which give delay information for off-NEC and NEC trains, respectively.
ASM Alerts This is an application that will allow you to receive text/email alerts of any train's progress. By customizing your Alert, you can choose to get all of a train's times, just its late times, or whether or not it sustains a Service Disruption or recovers from one. You can also choose to get the train times for a particular station, only.

You can apply this to a single train, to a list of trains that you provide, or a whole class of them (designated usually by their timetable names).

Station Status Boards
Amtrak Station Status Boards A simulated Solari-type board is provided to furnish the status of Amtrak trains at any station that you choose - as if you were there - right now.

Archives
Amtrak Train Status Archives Look up the record of any train.
Amtrak Status Maps Archive Database The Amtrak Train Status Archives, but in a database, so it's searchable. It makes it easy to ask for and receive exactly what you want. Performance graphs are available as well as timetable resources.