The love of the open road is a staple of travel lore in the USA, where epic road trips and lonely Greyhound bus rides are the stuff of fiction and Hollywood legend. But now, for lovers of eerie and esoteric locations, and the romance of rail, the quietest train stations in the USA have been revealed in a new analysis by British tabloid, MailOnline.
Sanderson, Texas
Data from the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), operator of a 500-destination rail network across the US, shows that the once-prosperous county seat of Sanderson, Terrell County, Texas, is the least-used stop in the US. Its station, founded in 1880, only handled 247 passengers in 2023 – an average of less than one passenger a day in the town now known as the Lone Star State’s “Cactus Capital.”
Nonetheless, the area’s 700 inhabitants saw the station improved to the tune of $3m in 2021, providing that smattering of rail passengers with a new open-air shelter, a concrete platform and walkways to increase accessibility.
The curious can get there via six services a week, three westbound and three eastbound, aboard the Sunset Limited long-distance train connecting New Orleans to San Antonio.
Montgomery, Alderson and Thurmond, West Virginia
We’ve all heard of the “country roads” leading to West Virginia, made famous in a country music classic, and perhaps that’s why so few people take the train there that the Mountain State “boasts” three of America’s least-used stations.
In Montgomery, West Virginia, only 266 people used the rail station in 2023. It’s possible to get there three times a week on the Cardinal train, connecting New York and Chicago via a 26-hour route that also takes in Alderson, four stops away and the third quietest rail station in the US, with just 399 passengers last year.
Meanwhile nearby Thurmond, which is only a stop away from Montgomery, served only 466 passengers, making it the fourth quietest station in the US.
Rensselaer, Indiana
Rensselaer, Indiana, also on the Cardinal’s route, may be just over two hours from Chicago and have a population of around 6,000 but still it only saw 509 passengers pass through in 2023, putting it in fifth place in the least-used station list.
Will the stations keep their remote charm now it’s been publicised? Never fear, there is little chance of them threatening the stations at the busier end of the ranking. The busiest, Moynihan Train Hall at Pennsylvania Station in New York, regularly handles over 650,000 passengers a day.
