Belen Cutoff

The Southern Transcon is a main line of the BNSF Railway 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 and bypassed the steep grades of Raton Pass, 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. An average of almost 90 trains daily (over 100 trains on peak days) passed over the section between Belen and Clovis, New Mexico in 2006, each train typically 6000 to 8000 feet (1800 to 2400 meters) in length.

It is used by Southern California's Metrolink trains between Los Angeles Union Station and San Bernardino, California, Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner between Los Angeles and Fullerton, California, and Amtrak's Southwest Chief runs once daily in each direction on the transcon, but via the Raton Pass. Amtrak's Desert Wind also used the Southern Transcon between Los Angeles and Barstow, California, until its cancellation in 1997.

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