Lots of people think that Amtrak is is a sad excuse for a national rail system, and we're inclined to agree. But that's not stopping people from turning to the train in ever-increasing numbers. For the recently ended fiscal year, Amtrak saw an 11% increase in total traffic, with nearly 21 million passengers boarding one of its trains during the past fiscal year.
The high-speed Acela continued to gain ground on the Boston-NYC-Philly-DC corridor, with an 8% increase in boardings. But Amtrak also saw big gains on its mainline (and generally low speed) short-haul services. The Chicago to Milwaukee Hiawatha line was up 22.4%, the Raleigh to Charlotte Piedmont route jumped 27.5%, and the Keystone line between New York and Harrisburg PA was up 19.1%. The biggest gainer in the entire Amtrak system? The scenic Boston to Portland, Maine Downeaster -- up nearly 33%.
These traffic increases make sense -- most of them are between cities that would otherwise be traveled by auto. But more surprising are the jumps on Amtrak's long haul routes. The New York to Chicago Cardinal saw a 13.9% jump, New Orleans to Chicago was up 14.3%, and the Washington to Chicago Capitol Limited was up 12.1%. Some of these are long, long rides -- Chicago to New York takes 27 hours via Amtrak (in part because it is routed through Baltimore and Cincinnati. The willingness to spend this much time on a train speaks to just how severe the impact of gas prices and airfare fare hikes has become.
As for dealing with this growth, Amtrak's Karina Romero says there is still capacity to spare on many trains. But when it comes to adding new equipment or frequencies, she says it isn't as easy as it seems. For one thing, Amtrak doesn't have a bunch of spare trains that they can simply pull out of storage. For another, additional services would need to be negotiated with freight carriers who share much of the national railroad infrastructure.
While the number of people traveling by train is miniscule compared with planes or cars, these numbers seem to indicate that there is a real market for train travel out there. We've asked before and we'll ask again: isn't it about time for this country to invest in a high-speed rail network?
Photo: Amtrak
