Welcome to America’s loneliest train station – with fewer passengers than days in a year
You’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere in the middle of nowhere in America other than Sanderson.
Still, it’s firmly on the map thanks to two notable claims to fame: It’s the cactus capital of Texas and home to America’s least used train station.
It’s on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle routes between Los Angeles and New Orleans/Chicago — and when we dug into Amtrak’s passenger data to identify America’s 10 loneliest stations, we found that in 2023, only 247 people would use it recently renovated Sanderson station.
It will have nine arrivals per week, with passengers able to take six trains to Los Angeles and three to New Orleans or Chicago, the latter being 1,350 miles away. The eastbound train splits at San Antonio, with the New Orleans service called the Sunset Limited and the Chicago train the Texas Eagle.
This service operates America’s longest train route, taking 65 hours to travel the 2,728 miles between LA and the Windy City.
MailOnline Travel dug into Amtrak’s passenger data to identify America’s 10 loneliest stations and found only 247 people used the Sanderson station in Texas (above in 2023)
Sanderson is on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle routes between Los Angeles and New Orleans/Chicago
Sanderson gets nine train arrivals a week. In this image, the Amtrak Sunset Limited train travels through the desert near the small town
The second loneliest station is Montgomery, West Virginia, where only 266 people boarded or disembarked in 2023.
Alderson, West Virginia, is just four stops east of Montgomery and the third loneliest station with 399 passengers. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons licensing
Thurmond, West Virginia, one stop east of Montgomery, ranks fourth with 466 passengers. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons licensing
The second loneliest station is Montgomery, West Virginia, where only 266 people boarded or disembarked in 2023.
Montgomery is on the Cardinal route between New York City and Chicago, with departures daily at 9:02 AM and 7:50 PM. The entire cardinal route takes 27 hours and 28 minutes.
On the same line is Alderson, West Virginia, just four stops east of Montgomery and the third loneliest station with 399 passengers.
Thurmond, West Virginia, one stop east of Montgomery, ranks fourth with 466 passengers.
The fifth least used station on the network is Rensselaer, which is also served by Cardinal service, but is further west in Indiana, and just two stops from Chicago. In 2023 it welcomed 509 passengers.
The sixth least used stop, Connersville, also in Indiana, is used by 528 passengers and is four stops east of Rensselaer.
The fifth least used station on the network is Rensselaer, Indiana, which welcomed 509 passengers in 2023. It is pictured here before the renovation of the Amtrak station
The sixth least used stop, Connersville, Indiana, is used by 528 passengers annually
The seventh loneliest train station on the Amtrak network is Lordsburg (688 passengers) in New Mexico
In eighth place is South Shore-South Portsmouth, Kentucky, on the Cardinal line, with 870 riders
Schriever, Louisiana, in ninth place with 912 riders, one stop away from New Orleans on the Sunset Limited route
The 10th loneliest station is Browning, Montana, on the Empire Builder route from Seattle to Chicago, with 935 passengers
The entire route of the Empire Builder takes between 45 and 47 hours. The train is seen here crossing the North Fork Skykomish River in Washington
The seventh loneliest train station on the Amtrak network is Lordsburg (688 passengers) in New Mexico, which is on the Sunset Limited route.
In eighth place is South Shore-South Portsmouth, Kentucky, on the Cardinal line, with 870 riders, followed by Schriever, Louisiana, in ninth place with 912. Schriever is one stop from New Orleans on the Sunset Limited route .
The 10th loneliest station is Browning, Montana, on the Empire Builder route from Seattle to Chicago, with 935 passengers. The entire route of the Empire Builder takes between 45 and 47 hours.
Our research also shows that Washington DC has only one Amtrak train station: Washington Union Station, which saw 4.75 million passengers in 2023. The stop is the second most used stop on the entire Amtrak network.
Similarly, the state of Idaho has only one Amtrak stop, Sandpoint, which served 4,751 passengers on the Empire Builder line in 2023. The town is known for its large lake and, in winter, ski slopes.
The busiest Amtrak station in California is Pomona, in Los Angeles, with 1,315 passengers disembarking or boarding Sunset Limited service, while tourist hotspot Florida’s loneliest station is Okeechobee (4,026 passengers), which is on the Silver Star route from Miami to New York. York city.
Amtrak has no stations in Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming or South Dakota.