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ANNUAL AMTRAK RIDERSHIP SETS ALL-TIME RECORD; FIFTH STRAIGHT YEAR OF INCREASES Ridership tops 25.8 million, $1.5 billion in passenger revenue WASHINGTON – Amtrak ridership in Fiscal Year 2007 increased to 25,847,531, marking the fifth straight year of gains and setting a record for the most passengers using Amtrak trains since the National Railroad Passenger Corporation stated operations in 1971. This total, for the period October 1, 2006-September 30, 2007, topped the 24,306,965 for the previous 12 months and is greater than the passenger count of 25.03 million reached in 2004, before Amtrak transitioned some services to a commuter rail operator. Total ticket revenue for the fiscal year, $1.5 billion was an 11 percent increase over the $1.37 billion in FY06. If other income from contract services is included, the railroad’s total revenue was $2.2 billion for the fiscal year. “Highway and airway congestion, volatile fuel prices, increasing environmental awareness, and a need for transportation links between growing communities, are some of the factors that make intercity passenger rail extremely relevant in today’s world,” said Alex Kummant, President and CEO of Amtrak. “Combined with the efforts of the hardworking men and women of Amtrak who make our service work, our investment in the Northeast Corridor is paying dividends with improved on-time performance (OTP), and that draws in more ridership and revenue. “Our record setting ridership and ticket revenue in FY07 indicate the stage is set for Amtrak to take on a role as not only a contributor to the nation’s transportation network, but as a leader among modes,” he added. East Highlights Revenue growth was the greatest in the Northeast, where revenue reached $829.3 million, a 14 percent increase over last year’s ticket revenue. The popularity of the Acela Express service continued in FY07 as is evidenced by the 20 percent increase in ridership (3.1 million passengers) and 23 percent climb in ticket revenue ($403.5 million) versus last year. Acela Express service saw an increase in OTP, frequently surpassing its goal of 90 percent. At year-end, the OTP for Acela Express was 87.8 percent, up more than three percent over the same period last year. The popularity and high demand for this service also prompted the creation in July of another weekday Acela Express round trip between New York and Washington. Regional Service ridership continues also to rise: 6.6 million passengers rode Regional trains in FY07, an increase of 1.2 percent. Additionally, Regional passenger ticket revenue for period rose 7.2 percent. The Keystone Service, which operates between Harrisburg, Philadelphia, and New York City experienced significant growth with a 20.7 percent increase in ridership, reaching 988,454 in FY07. Moreover, ticket revenue increased by nearly 30 percent, to $20,582,838. Last fall, Amtrak and the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation with support from the Federal Transit Administration, introduced all-electric service with speeds up to 110 mph on the Keystone Corridor, which has reduced travel times between Harrisburg and Philadelphia and Harrisburg and New York City by between 15 and 45 minutes. Weekday roundtrips have also increased from 11 to 14 – with ten traveling through to New York. The Downeaster, operating daily between Portland, Maine and Boston, Mass., added a fifth round trip to its service this past August. The service achieved a seven percent increase in ridership in FY07, reaching 361,634. The Downeaster also brought in $4.8 million in ticket revenue, a 5.3 percent increase from a year ago. Central Highlights Huge gains are tied to increased frequencies in Illinois, with the three routes between Chicago and downstate communities showing large increases. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) has more than doubled the size of its contract with Amtrak, providing three of the five round-trips on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor and two round-trips each on the Carbondale and Quincy routes, starting late last October. On the Chicago-St. Louis Lincoln Service corridor, ridership is up by 55.8 percent for the state trains and 42 percent for the corridor, with total of 477,888. Ridership between Chicago and Carbondale, the route the Illini and Saluki trains share with the City of New Orleans, is up by 67.4 percent for the state-supported trains and 46 percent for the corridor, totaling 263,809. For the Chicago-Galesburg-Quincy route of the Illinois Zephyr, Carl Sandburg and other trains, ridership has gained 41.4 percent for the state-sponsored trains and 33 percent for the route, with 194,535 passengers. Also from the Amtrak hub in Chicago is the Hiawatha Service, with up to seven daily round-trips sponsored by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation with IDOT. Nearly 600,000 passengers rode the trains between Milwaukee and Chicago last year, an increase of 2.6 percent. The state-supported routes in Michigan – Grand Rapids-St. Joseph-Chicago Pere Marquette and the Port Huron-East Lansing-Chicago Blue Water – also posted increases. Ridership on the Pere Marquette was up 2.8 percent and on the Blue Water, 3.1 percent. West Highlights California’s Capitol Corridor service which operates between Auburn and San Jose, carried more than 1.4 million passengers in FY07, a 15 percent increase over the same period last year. Ticket revenue topped $18 million, a 21 percent increase over the previous 12 months. In addition, the San Diego-San Luis Obispo Pacific Surfliner, showed a nine percent increase in ticket revenue, reaching more than $46 million. National Highlights Among the trains on the Amtrak national network, the Empire Builder is again the most popular overnight train. With more than a half-million passengers, the daily Chicago-St. Paul- Seattle/Portland train showing an increase of 1.6 percent. Also, the Auto Train, which operates between the Washington, D.C and Orlando areas, posted a ridership increase of five percent from last year. Long-distance trains recording above-average ridership performances include the New Orleans-Tucson-Los Angeles Sunset Limited (up 22.1 percent), Chicago-Albuquerque-Los Angeles Southwest Chief (up 5.4 percent) and Chicago-Memphis-New Orleans City of New Orleans (up 3 percent). In addition, the New York-Miami Silver Service trains (Silver Meteor- Silver Star) achieved ridership gains of 6.9 and 5.7 percent respectively and the Palmetto’s passenger number jumped by 7.5 percent over the previous 12 months. About Amtrak Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail service to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 22,000-mile route system. For schedules, fares and information, passengers may call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com. # # #
Posts: 562 | From: Beaumont Texas | Registered: Jul 2005
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Maybe I'm just getting used to this, but the Gunn-ian philosophy of people voting with their feet seems to be happening, albeit with- out the Gunn.
I'm still amazed how they can keep setting ridership records with fewer trains, shorter trains, and less operating equipment every new year. Then again, external events have once again swung around in Amtrak's favor. Now all we as a populace are going to have to do is make elected officials realize that this issue is on the tips of our tongues by writing them letters and showing displeasure to people like Senator Sunoco who take the blatlantly wrong approach.
Make An AmWish List: More reliable specialty locomotives (ahem, dual modes) and maybe more of them (anyone seen 705's nose in the past two and a half years? 703 and 708 too...) Viewliner II baggage-dorms V-II diners (come on, they've needed these for 15 years) V-II sleepers (for the Colonial Twilight Federal Night Owl Shoreliner train and Boston section of the Lakeshore and a daily Cardinal) Funding to return stored, char-grilled, dented and otherwise-damaged equipment to service The ability to add trains and services without a four-year federal review Two new NEC bridges 110 MPH upgrades to two short-distance corridor segments Safe travel over the whole system (keep in mind the best way to attract new customers and keep the scrappers away is to not bend corners)
Basically, the popular attitude is still improving, and the political attitude remains pretty rotten.
Posts: 391 | From: Schenectady | Registered: Jan 2002
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I would suspect that the major factor behind the raw numbers of riders increasing as much as they are is the recent several heavily subsidized state supported short haul trains. Since we are counting transactions rather than passenger miles, a large number of short rides makes the numbers look very good. The reduced train lengths of the short hauls, particularly the eastern ones makes me wonder if the passenger mile numbers are really up that much. Somebody has got to come up with some passenger-mile numbers before we have any meaningful stataistics to work with. The current method of phoney bookkeeping makes the guy that rides between Washington and Baltimore equal to the guy that rides Chicago to Seattle.
Given the rediculous pricing of some of the sleepper lines and sold out way in the future of some of them, it says that getting another sleeper or more on several of the long distance trains could result in some significant improvements in the passenger mile numbers.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Amtrak207: Make An AmWish List: More reliable specialty locomotives (ahem, dual modes) and maybe more of them (anyone seen 705's nose in the past two and a half years? 703 and 708 too...) Viewliner II baggage-dorms V-II diners (come on, they've needed these for 15 years) V-II sleepers (for the Colonial Twilight Federal Night Owl Shoreliner train and Boston section of the Lakeshore and a daily Cardinal) Funding to return stored, char-grilled, dented and otherwise-damaged equipment to service The ability to add trains and services without a four-year federal review Two new NEC bridges 110 MPH upgrades to two short-distance corridor segments Safe travel over the whole system (keep in mind the best way to attract new customers and keep the scrappers away is to not bend corners)
Basically, the popular attitude is still improving, and the political attitude remains pretty rotten.
I second these motions / notions.
-------------------- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the Earth all one's life." Posts: 506 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Mar 2002
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Redouble track the ex-ACL main Richmond to Jacksonville, and keep going all the way to Miami, so you can run 4 or more daily trains.
Double track the full Sunset Route all the way to New Orleans, daily Sunset, add second train at least N. O. to San Antonio or extend the Crescent, not as a substitute, but as an addition. Oh, year, reinstate the Phoenix Line - for at least 79 mph operation.
CTC and new sidings across the Florida Panhandle, double track most of the ex-L&N N. O. to Mobile
Re-rail the ex ATSF passenger line across Kansas and over Raton, get the 100 mph speed limit back. Add a second train.
Double track the ex-GN High Line. Yes, the Builder keeps time well, but that is due to very good operating practices not slack in the capacity.
Maybe we need to re-four track the ex NYC.
Actually do something for such things as the Midwest high speed services, the southeast high speed, Texas triangle, etc.
That which helps get us fast short distance services will also help speed up the long distances that run the same route. If we stitched the various northestern area speed up schemes, we could be seeing fast New York to Chicago trains also as part of it. I often wondered why NYC never tried anything equivalent to the old ICRR daytime City of New Orleans. You certainly had more and bigger intermediate cities on the NYC line than on the ICRR.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Sorry, I set my sights small. The ex-NYC Water Level Route was one of the two intermediate-distance corridors to which I was alluding. You can reduce travel times a heck of a lot more by eliminating the same old 15 MPH restrictions than by cranking up the top speed in between stations.
It takes a train 6 miles to accelerate to 100 MPH. It takes the same train 12 miles to make 125. My solution is to eliminate the number and duration of times where the train has to slow down.
Posts: 391 | From: Schenectady | Registered: Jan 2002
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OK-obvious East Coast bias in here. LOL. Here's my WEST COAST AmWish List:
1.Offer assistance to UP to add more capacity to the Sunset Route. 2. Make the Sunset Route DAILY and POSSIBLY re-route it through NORTHERN TX-serving Fort Worth and Dallas. 3. Another San Joaquin Train-first of it's kind over Altamont Pass serving San Jose. 4. An overnight train from SAN-LAX-to the bay area connecting Southern Cal to the CZ 5. Return LAX- Las Vegas Service FOR GOOD. 6. Return of the Pioneer. 7. And if we're talking REAL pipe dreams...increase capacity over the tehachapi loop to reinstate SEEMLESS service between the bay area and Los Angeles via the Central Valley (per UP-fat chance of this ever happening).
Posts: 387 | From: Bakersfield, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Of course, not all the projects talked about above are likely to happen, because things usually turn out a little differently from what is expected. But by the same token, I see little reason to dismiss any of those ideas as being unrealistic. I think an expanded Amtrak is quite possible, and hope for the best.
Posts: 144 | Registered: Sep 2005
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The SF to LA is a very very good idea. So are other suggestions except I don't agree bout Sunset Ltd reroute. It;s Houston that needs to be served. I'd like to see it, or another branch, FL to New Orleans reinstated too.
Also, there needs to be a return of service to Nashville. I think there needs to be a train from Florida to Atlanta to Nashville, stopping in Chattanooga too, and then maybe going on to Chicago.
Cardinal, like SL, definitely daily.
Need train service to Phoenix AZ again.
Reinstate train Chicago to Toronto (extending one of the Michigan trains).
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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** ** - denotes year of highest number of revenue passenger miles. Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, www.bts.gov
-------------------- "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one corner of the Earth all one's life." Posts: 506 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Mar 2002
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Let's not forget a 2nd train between CHI and St. Paul. The Empire Builder is frequently sold out on this segment.
Posts: 1572 | From: St. Paul, MN | Registered: Dec 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Amtrak207: You can reduce travel times a heck of a lot more by eliminating the same old 15 MPH restrictions than by cranking up the top speed in between stations.
It takes a train 6 miles to accelerate to 100 MPH. It takes the same train 12 miles to make 125. My solution is to eliminate the number and duration of times where the train has to slow down.
Yes, Yes, Yes ! ! ! !
Skipping the math, if you have a section of track with a 79 mph speed limit that has a one mile long 15 mph speed restriction,
If you raise the speed limit to 90 mph but otherwise don't change anything, then for a 20 miles section, you have improved your run time by about 1 minute 17 seconds.
If you keep the speed limit at 79 mph but eliminate the 15 mph speed restriction so that the whole distance can be run at 79 mph, then you have improved your run time by about 5 minutes 24 seconds.
Let's see, now which should you do? Oh yeah, eliminating the speed restriction saves fuel. Increasing the speed limit without eliminating the speed restriction costs fuel.
Even if the speed restriction is effectively zero length, it will still cost you over two minutes in run time from 79 mph.
The cost, time, and fuel penalty for freight trains is worse than it is for passenger trains for two reasons: First, the effective length of a speed restriction is the length of the restriction itself plus the length of the train, and second, freight train acceleration is much slower than passenger train acceleration.
Posts: 2810 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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Let me add (without checking sources) that my recollection is that Amtrak hit more than 6 billion passenger miles in 1979. Thereafter, the number fell, then rose to the 1991 high, then fell again.
Not exactly the same record of success, is it?
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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