Amtrak hits record 30 million passengers

[marmar]

WASHINGTON (AP) — Amtrak trains carried more than 30 million passengers in the past 12 months, the most in one year since the passenger railroad was created four decades ago, railroad officials said Thursday.

Ridership during the budget year ending on Sept. 30 was 30.2 million passengers, up 5 percent over the previous year. Ticket revenue was up by more than 8 percent despite significant weather-related disruptions in much of the country.

Amtrak has set ridership records eight out of the last nine years. A decade ago, it carried 21 million passengers a year.

"Amtrak is fulfilling its national mission and is part of the solution to meet America's growing transportation and energy needs," Joseph Boardman, Amtrak's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jqs2jD8hu_BCbjYuYWRc_mucu96g?docId=a2d83776c81f4c6daa34271efa96a5fe

[Stuart G]

1. kick and recommend.....

[Lars39]

2. I would *really* like to be able to go from Nashville, TN to anywhere by train.

<whines>

[AllyCat]

3. Our family was among them. Had a lovely trip, and the trains were PACKED the entire way,

even through the smaller routes. The kids had a blast. No car seats, bring your own food, no unreasonable luggage restrictions/fees. No cavity searches or radiation. We will absolutely take Amtrak again.

[markpkessinger]

4. Now if we could only get the infrastructure investment to build Amtrak its own passenger tracks...

One of the things that has made it difficult for Amtrak to operate as efficiently as it it should is that in many places outside the Washington, D.C./Boston corridor, Amtrak must lease track rights on freight tracks owned by ConRail, on which Amtrak passenger trains get lower scheduling priority than ConRail's freight trains.

[marmar]

6. Very true. The Detroit-Chicago route, which I take often, is ALWAYS delayed.....

...... by freight trains.

[Matariki]

5. Thanks to the TSA

[Old and In the Way]

7. The Portland-Boston Amtrack Route "Noreaster" has been a success.

A great way to visit Boston without dealing with the driving into and around Boston. Every stop on the line has benefited from having these stations; Saco's depot has anchored a local downtown revitalization in the old brick textile/leather factories complex. Buses may be a little cheaper and a little quicker, but the club car and social aspect of traveling by train is great. I only wish they'd extend it to Bangor/Waterville/Lewiston-Auburn.

[Orrex]

8. Those poor passengers! 30 million hit by Amtrak?!? The horror! The horror!

[markpkessinger]

9. An Amtrak story of mine ...

... Many years ago (sometime in about the mid '90s), I took Amtrak's train from Lewistown, PA back to NYC on the Sunday after Thanksgiving. I made the mistake of taking an unreserved train. This is a train line that runs from Pittsburgh across central PA to Lewistown, then south the Harrisburg, then east through Lancaster, Downingtown and the various stations along the old "Main Line," such as Landsdale, Bryn Mawr, etc. and then into Philadelphia (where, in a 25 minute layover, the diesel engine is disconnected and the train then runs on electrical power), then on to North Philly, Trenton, Princeton, New Brunswick, Newark and finally, NYC.

Think for a minute just how many colleges and universities lie along that route, and you'll begin to understand why the unreserved train was a BIG mistake. When I boarded the train, the only place to sit was on my suitcase in the center aisle. You couldn't even move to the next car for all the passengers (the majority of them college students). Somewhere between North Philadelphia and Trenton, the train broke down. We sat there for over FOUR HOURS. Meanwhile the bar car had run out of all beverages EXCEPT alcoholic ones. So picture a train that crowded, stranded between stations, with nothing but alcohol for a crowd mostly consisting of college students to drink. NOT a pretty picture, I can tell you!

Still, overall, I have to say my travels on Amtrak have been mostly quite relaxing and enjoyable, this particular trip notwithstanding.

[EdMaven]

11. that reminds me of being a kid in the 50s/60s -- parents would put my sister & i on

the train & send us to our grands for the holidays. the train staff would look after us, & the trains were usually packed with college kids also going somewhere for the holidays, as well as families and others.

i remember one packed train when we sat in the aisle listening to a college kid play folk songs for the entire car, with some people singing along. we thought he was about the coolest thing in the universe.

[FarCenter]

12. My old school

I still remember the thirty-five sweet goodbyes
When you put me on the Wolverine
Up to Annandale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpgE8CpxZFI&feature=related

[marlakay]

10. I have tickets to Seattle this weekend

Instead of driving over the pass....can't wait.

[1620rock]

13. Bring back first class rail service. I have had it with airport goons.

[PurityOfEssence]

14. I guess we have to privatize it now.

Can't have such revenues going to the gummint...

[csziggy]

15. If they could get the service back to the levels of the 40s and 50s

Their ridership would increase tenfold!

Today I was reading my grandmother's diaries of 1948, 49 and 50. She lived in Central Florida and would regularly catch a train from Lakeland or Winter Haven to spend a weekend with friends in Jacksonville, Melbourne, or Palm Beach. Every spring she'd take the train to Washington for a week. Friends of hers from Michigan or New York state would take the train south in the winter to spend time with her. She and GrandDad would also pick up business associates from the train station when they came down to check out the business he worked for.

Even earlier, in the 20s and 30s, the family would take the train from Central Florida to Michigan almost every summer. Dad remembers watching his father shave with a straight razor on the moving train!

These days, most of those train routes no longer exist and the ones that do, the schedule is so unreliable it's not worth trying to use them as a regular method of travel. Someday I want to take a train trip, but it will have to be with a flexible time frame to accommodate the vagaries of the schedule.

[goforit]

16. gggggggoooooooo AMTRAK!!!

[Populist_Prole]

17. I ride when I can, and where time allows. Very civilized way of travelling.

The service itself is fine, especially ( room/roomette ) 1st class. The route system has big holes, but that's more the result of conservative/libertarians trying to kill Amtrak, let alone contain it and starve it of funds.

[KamaAina]

18. Let's kill it!!!

That's 30 million people who aren't driving and filling up with our Big Oil ccampaign contributors' $4/gallon gas!!

:sarcasm: