Two centuries ago, trains were how America got around. In 2027, the country marks 200 years of commercial passenger rail — the anniversary falls on 28 February — and Brand USA is leaning in hard, promoting scenic routes, heritage railways and hotels you can sleep in without leaving the platform.
For travellers, the anniversary year is a good excuse to reconsider how to cross a country usually experienced at 35,000 feet. Amtrak's long-haul routes cover some spectacular ground: the California Zephyr links Chicago to the San Francisco Bay Area through the Rockies and Sierra Nevada, the Coast Starlight runs Seattle to Los Angeles, and the Empire Builder crosses the northern plains to the Pacific Northwest via Glacier National Park. Newer options include the Canyon Spirit between Denver and Salt Lake City, which runs only in daylight so you don't sleep through the red-rock scenery, and the Southwest Chief from Chicago towards LA, which shadows Route 66 — stops at Albuquerque and Flagstaff put the Grand Canyon within reach.
There's fresh metal too. Amtrak's new Airo trains are set to serve the Pacific Northwest Cascades corridor between Seattle and Portland, while the Gulf Coast's Mardi Gras Service links New Orleans with Mobile, Alabama, opening up quieter coastal towns east of the Big Easy.
Heritage fans are well served. Colorado's Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad climbs through the San Juan Mountains, the Cumbres & Toltec crosses into New Mexico with dinner and live-music rides, and West Virginia's Cass Scenic Railroad pushes into the Appalachians on old logging lines. Autumn leaf-peepers can book New York's Finger Lakes Rail Experience.
The celebrations stretch beyond the tracks. Baltimore's B&O Railroad Museum is planning bicentennial programming and a new Innovation Hall, while the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania opens an accessible roundhouse housing six steam locomotives. In Omaha, the Durham Museum occupies a 1931 Art Deco station complete with a working soda fountain and restored 1940s train cars. Branchville, South Carolina — home to the oldest railroad junction in the US — hosts its Raylrode Daze Festivul, running since 1969.
The quirkiest option? Sleeping in railway history. Chattanooga's Hotel Chalet at The Choo Choo puts you in restored Pullman carriages, Salt Lake City's Asher Adams fills a former Union Pacific depot, and Denver Union Station's Crawford Hotel offers Pullman-style sleeper rooms. In Idaho and New Mexico you can book converted cabooses, and near Lamy, Santa Fe–adjacent Sky Railway — a line from 1880 partly revived by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin — runs stargazing, murder-mystery, jazz and margarita-themed trips. Ten Union Pacific cabooses at Omaha's Two Rivers State Recreation Area can be booked overnight in the warm months.
Why it matters: 2027 adds events, new trains and restored stock to a network that's genuinely workable for slow, scenic travel — ideal for anyone who'd rather watch America roll by than queue at an airport. Plan ahead; the marquee routes and caboose stays book out fast in anniversary year.
