Amtrak ridership stays strong

Amtrak, determined to sell its utility amidst a background of serious budget cuts and threats, has reported its 17th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth, with the railroad anticipating an annual ridership record for fiscal year 2011, which ends September 30.

Amtrak says the gains continue a long-term trend that has seen Amtrak set annual ridership records in seven of the last eight fiscal years, including more than 28.7 million passengers in FY 2010. Ridership increased 5.5% in March compared with March 2010, or more than 137,000 passengers.

For the first half of FY11 (October to March) ridership rose 5.9%, or 802,745 passengers, compared with the first six months of FY10. The increase has occurred on all three of Amtrak’s major business lines, with the Northeast Corridor up 3.9%, state-supported and other short distance corridors up 7.7%, and long-distance trains up 5.3%.

The 17 straight months of year-over-year ridership growth spans from November 2009 to March 2011 and averages a 6.3 percent growth rate over the period, Amtrak said.

“Our ridership has grown more than 36 percent since 2000, and I expect that trend to continue – and if gas prices continue to rise—to accelerate. Our only restriction will be the available capacity,” Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman told a House Appropriations committee considering the national passenger railroad’s FY12 budget request.

Amtrak attributes the increases to several factors, including an improved economic environment allowing recovery of business travel along the Northeast Corridor, high gasoline prices which are trending higher, the increased appeal and popularity of rail travel, effective marketing campaigns, and the added benefit of Wi-Fi on the high-speed Acela Express trains.

Privately, some Amtrak officials note with some frustration the continued efforts of some congressional representatives to curtail or eliminate Amtrak funding even as ridership improves. And one retired Amtrak employee observes, “Once we were ‘wasteful spending’ because no one rode; now we’re ‘wasteful spending’ because we’re successful and shouldn’t need the money.”