Least frequent scheduled passenger rail services in North America

So what is America's least frequent scheduled passenger service?
What is the least frequent scheduled passenger rail service in Canada?
Maybe the least frequent scheduled passenger rail services in some other countries with passenger heavy rail.

For US, these three come to mind.
LIRR’s Greenport scoot (Summer: 4.5 Weekday RT, 4 weekend RT & Winter: 3.5 Weekday RT, 2 weekend RT)
Septa’s Cynwyd dinky (6 weekday RT, 0 weekend RT)
MARC’s Frederick service (3 weekday RT, 0 weekend RT)

Frederick branch at 15 round trips a week seems the lowest for NorthEast services.

In the USA, Amtrak's Cardinal and Southwest Limited at 3 trips a week each are likely candidates.

SS - Beginning Saturday December 3, 2022 LIRR's Greenport Scoot begins the Winter season two round trip
Saturday/Sunday weekend schedule - reduced from four round trips:

Eastbound -
Leave Ronkonkoma...9:34 AM (connecting train from Penn Station NY arrives at 9:29 AM)
Arrive Riverhead.......10:19 AM (important intermediate station)
Arrive Greenport.......10:59 AM
Westbound -
Leave Greenport........12:03 PM
Leave Riverhead........12:42 PM
Arrive Ronkonkoma...1:26 PM (connecting train to Penn Station NY leaves at 1:31 PM)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Eastbound -
Leave Ronkonkoma...2:34 PM (connecting train from Penn Station NY arrives at 2:29 PM)
Arrive Riverhead........3:19 PM
Arrive Greenport........3:59 PM
Westbound -
Leave Greenport........5:03 PM
Leave Riverhead........5:42 PM
Arrive Ronkonkoma...6:26 PM (connecting train to Penn Station NY leaves at 6:31 PM)

Miles from Long Island City: Ronkonkoma 48.5; Riverhead 73.3 and Greenport 94.3 (for the record)

Reducing the weekend Greenport Scoot schedule from four to two round trips has been a regular Winter
seasonal change since around the year 2000 when the expanded four round trip schedule went into effect...

For the record on weekdays one PM round trip is operated to MEDFORD (54.1) and YAPHANK (58.6) only:
Eastbound - Leaves Ronkonkoma 5:21 PM - Arrives Medford 5:32 PM and Yaphank 5:40 PM.
(Connecting train from Penn Station NY arrives at 5:16 PM)
Westbound - Leaves Yaphank at 6:10 PM; Medford at 6:18 PM - arrives Ronkonkoma at 6:30 PM
(Connecting train to Penn Station NY leaves at 6:36 PM)

Agreed - The LIRR Ronkonkoma-Greenport "Scoot" is the LIRR's least-run service.
More For the Record: The LIRR line with the lowest ridership in the system is the West Hempstead Branch...
MACTRAXX

I can name many large cities with zero passenger train services, per year!
City and population
Columbus 905,000
Lehigh Valley PA (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton) 861,000
Nashville 689,000
Las Vegas 662,000
Louisville 613,000
Wyoming Valley PA (Scranton and Wilkes-Barre) 567,000
NW Arkansas (Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville) 560,000
Tulsa 413,000
Quad Cities (Bettendorf, Davenport in Iowa, Moline, East Moline, and Rock Island) 383,000
Midland-Odessa 340,000
Corpus Christi 317,000
Bryan-College Station 268,000
Laredo 261,000
Lubbock 257,000
Boise 235,000
Des Moines 214,000
Amarillo 202,000
Augusta GA 202,000
Montgomery 202,000

I probably missed a few metro areas over 200,000 on this list. Never-the-less, these cities are huge without any Amtrak services at all.

Nashville has the music city train, I thought

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 9:43 am Agreed - The LIRR Ronkonkoma-Greenport "Scoot" is the LIRR's least-run service.
More For the Record: The LIRR line with the lowest ridership in the system is the West Hempstead Branch...
MACTRAXX

I would imagine the Greenport Scoot has lower total ridership than the West Hempstead Branch (It's just that it's likely lumped in with the Ronkonkoma Branch statistics)

They should really revamp the Greenport Scoot schedule so that alternating trains terminate at Riverhead and the span is longer. This will be easier once East Side Access opens since there will be more frequent electric service to connect it to. Using the proposed Ronkonkoma Branch schedule as a baseline, a good connecting service could be as follows:

Weekday

Leaves Ronkonkoma 3:41am, arrives Riverhead 4:25am, arrives Greenport 5:05am

Leaves Greenport 5:24am, arrives Riverhead 6:02am, arrives Ronkonkoma 6:48am

Leaves Ronkonkoma 7:25am, arrives Riverhead 8:09am, arrives Greenport 8:49am

Leaves Greenport 9:27am, arrives Riverhead 10:05am, arrives Ronkonkoma 10:51am

Leaves Ronkonkoma 11:28am, arrives Riverhead 12:12pm

Leaves Riverhead 12:34pm, arrives Ronkonkoma 1:20pm

Leaves Ronkonkoma 1:58pm, arrives Riverhead 2:42pm, arrives Greenport 3:22pm

Leaves Greenport 3:59pm, arrives Riverhead 4:37pm, arrives Ronkonkoma 5:23pm

Leaves Ronkonkoma 5:54pm, arrives Riverhead 6:38pm

Leaves Riverhead 7:05pm, arrives Ronkonkoma 7:51pm

Leaves Ronkonkoma 8:14pm, arrives Riverhead 8:58pm, arrives Greenport 9:38pm

Leaves Greenport 9:54pm, arrives Riverhead 10:32pm, arrives Ronkonkoma 11:18pm

Alternatively, the 11:28am out of Ronkonkoma can run to Greenport, arriving at 12:52pm, then turning for a 1:27pm to Ronkonkoma (arriving 2:51pm). Then turn for a 3:28pm to Riverhead (arriving 4:12pm) and then a 4:37pm to Ronkonkoma (arriving at 5:23pm and contining the rest of the PM rush schedule as above)

Weekends, the full summer schedule should be 4:58am, 8:58am, 3:28pm, and 7:28pm out of Ronkonkoma to Greenport (with a 12:58pm Ronkonkoma-Riverhead)

Going back should be 6:54am, 10:54am, 5:27pm, and 9:27pm out of Greenport to Ronkonkoma, with a 2:05pm out of Riverhead to Ronkonkoma.

Riders on the Riverhead short-turn have the option of using the S92 to connect to/from Greenport.

electricron wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 11:13 am I can name many large cities with zero passenger train services, per year!

They might not have any scheduled passenger services but are any, on occasion, served by special passenger services of the sort discussed in this thread.

There's a lot of seasonal, once or twice-weekly (or sometimes not even every week) tourist railroads that offer a "scheduled passenger rail service"...not to mention the thrice-weekly Amtrak long distance trains. This question could be answered so many different ways...

Yeah, it's a stretch to consider tourist roads or excursions as a "scheduled" service. By that definition, every Santa Train at a museum would count.

The Cardinal is probably the only correct answer for the US since there aren't any 1x a week scheduled services.

The Sunset is also 3x but there's always a Sunset consist moving on the rails.

In the past how about some of the mixed trains? Vaguley recall a mixed that only ran once a week?

Heritage services do not count and there is already a thread about special services. Those fall under Museums, Tourist lines and Historical Organisations. This is about non-heritage scheduled services.

MACTRAXX, I updated my post above for the info. I took my info from the "current" Ronk PDF schedule, dated Sept 6, 2022 and still live. I was honestly suprised it was 4 RT's on the weekend when I was typing it out.

scratchyX1 wrote: ↑Sun Dec 18, 2022 2:38 pm Nashville has the music city train, I thought

Operates 2 trains at a time daily. 3 trips AM then 3 trips PM. Considered "essential service" so continue to operate even in Covid.

Music City Star rebranded to WeGo Star. New purple scheme to match bus fleet. Rebuilt repainted ex-Amtrak F40 % "new" Gallery coach & cab.

Tennessee Central Museum & Nashville & Eastern home for ex-BN # 9912, the E9AM from Downers Grove accident 30 years ago. Still in green/white paint but rusting away.

west point wrote: ↑Mon Dec 19, 2022 11:24 pm In the past how about some of the mixed trains? Vaguely recall a mixed that only ran once a week?

Ontario Northland has one, 2-3 times weekly. Tshiuetin in Quebec has a irregular schedule (which varies by month and week).