Southern Transcon

Southern Transcon
Southern Transcon
	BNSF ES44DC No. 7520 leads on the Southern Transcon in the Mojave Desert, California
Overview
Owner	BNSF Railway
Locale	Southwestern and Midwest United States
Termini	Commerce; Chillicothe;
Connecting lines	San Bernardino Subdivision; Cajon Subdivision; Needles Subdivision; Seligman Subdivision; Gallup Subdivision; Clovis Subdivision; Hereford Subdivision; Panhandle Subdivision; Emporia Subdivision; Marceline Subdivision; Chillicothe Subdivision;
Stations	344
Service
Type	Inter-city rail; Freight rail; Commuter rail;
Operators	BNSF Railway; Amtrak; Metrolink; Union Pacific Railroad;
History
Completed	1 July 1908
Technical
Line length	2,200 mi (3,500 km)
Number of tracks	2
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Train protection system	PTC

The Southern Transcon is a main line of the BNSF Railway comprising 11 subdivisions between Southern California and Chicago, Illinois. Completed in its current alignment in 1908 by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, when it opened the Belen Cutoff in New Mexico (going through eastern New Mexico, northwestern Texas, briefly part of western Oklahoma and to Kansas) and bypassed the steep grades of Raton Pass (which passes through northeastern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado), it now serves as a mostly double-tracked intermodal corridor.

The Transcon is one of the most heavily trafficked rail corridors in the western United States: as of 2006, an average of almost 90 trains daily (over 100 trains on peak days) passed over the section between Belen and Clovis, New Mexico, with each train typically 6,000 to 8,000 feet (1,800 to 2,400 m) long.