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You’d be hard pressed to find a place more in the middle of nowhere in America than Sanderson.
However, it’s firmly on the map thanks to two surprising claims to fame: it’s the cactus capital of Texas and home to the least-used train station in the United States.
It’s on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle routes between Los Angeles and New Orleans/Chicago, and when we dug deeper into Amtrak ridership data to identify the 10 loneliest stations in the United States, we found that only 247 people they used the newly renovated Sanderson station in 2023.
It sees nine arrivals a week, and passengers can take six trains to Los Angeles and three to New Orleans or Chicago, the latter 1,350 miles away. The eastbound train splits at San Antonio, with the New Orleans service designated the Sunset Limited and the Chicago train designated the Texas Eagle.
This service operates the longest train route in the United States, taking 65 hours to cover the 2,728 miles between Los Angeles and the Windy City.
MailOnline Travel dug into Amtrak ridership data to identify the 10 loneliest stations in America and found that only 247 people used the Sanderson station in Texas (above, before renovation) in 2023.
Sanderson is located on Amtrak’s Sunset Limited and Texas Eagle routes between Los Angeles and New Orleans/Chicago.
Sanderson receives 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 got on or off a train in 2023.
Alderson, West Virginia, is just four stops eastbound from Montgomery and is the third loneliest station with 399 passengers. Image courtesy of Creative commons license
Thurmond, West Virginia, one stop east of Montgomery, is fourth with 466 passengers. Image courtesy of Creative commons license
The second loneliest station is Montgomery, West Virginia, where only 266 people got on or off a train in 2023.
Montgomery is located on the Cardinal route between New York City and Chicago, with daily departures at 9:02 am and 7:50 pm The entire Cardinal route takes 27 hours and 28 minutes to complete.
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, is fourth with 466 passengers.
The fifth least-used station on the network is Rensselaer, also served by Cardinal service, but located further west in Indiana and just two stops from Chicago. It welcomed 509 passengers in 2023.
The sixth least-used stop, Connersville, also in Indiana, is used by 528 passengers and is located four stops east of Rensselaer.
The fifth least-used station on the network is Rensselaer, Indiana, which served 509 passengers in 2023. Shown here before its Amtrak station renovation.
The sixth least used stop, Connersville in Indiana, is used by 528 passengers per year.
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 runners.
Schriever, Louisiana, in ninth place with 912 passengers, is one stop from New Orleans on the Sunset Limited route.
The tenth loneliest station is Browning, Montana, on the Empire Builder route from Seattle to Chicago, with 935 passengers.
The entire Empire Builder route takes between 45 and 47 hours. The train can be 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 tenth loneliest station is Browning, Montana, on the Empire Builder route from Seattle to Chicago, with 935 passengers. The entire Empire Builder route takes between 45 and 47 hours.
Our research also reveals that Washington DC has only one Amtrak train station: Washington Union Station, which served 4.75 million passengers in 2023. The stop is the second most used on the entire Amtrak network.
Similarly, the state of Idaho has only one Amtrak stop, Sandpoint, which served 4,751 passengers in 2023 on the Empire Builder line. The city is known for its large lake and, in winter, its ski slopes.
The least-used Amtrak station in busy California is Pomona in Los Angeles, with 1,315 passengers getting off or boarding the Sunset Limited service, while the Florida tourist hotspot’s loneliest station is Okeechobee (4,026 passengers), located in the Silver Star route from Miami to New York. City of York.
Amtrak does not have stations in Alaska, Hawaii, Wyoming or South Dakota.