Culture

Watch Amtrak's Trains Move Along Their Routes in Real Time

The useful, clean, and customer-friendly service lets anyone follow how fast a train is moving at any given time.
Reuters

This week Amtrak released "Track a Train" — an interactive, Google-powered, real-time-ish status map of its 300-plus daily trips. America's passenger rail provider says it created the feature because checking train status is the second most-popular action on its website, after buying tickets. Now travelers and train enthusiasts alike can see how fast a particular Amtrak train is moving at any given time.

Requisite snark aside, the service looks both polished and useful. (You can find it in the lower-left corner of Amtrak's main site.) The base map gives a national overview of Amtrak's service at the moment. Active trains are indicated by a blue arrow pointing in the direction they're traveling. Stations are shown as smaller white dots. A purple circle enclosing a number shows how many trains are in high-traffic areas and lets users zoom in with one click.