Amtrak ridership surged in April to be the best April on record and extends the national passenger railroad’s streak to 18 consecutive months of year-over-year ridership growth.
Ridership for April 2011 was nearly 2.7 million passengers which represents an increase of 9.9% over April 2010 and keeps America’s Railroads on track to set a new annual ridership record.
This strong performance is part of 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.
Comparing the first seven months of FY 2011 (October – April) to the same time period in FY 2010, national Amtrak ridership is up 6.5% so far this fiscal year and all three major business lines are showing gains: the Northeast Corridor up 4.8%, state-supported and other short distance corridors up 8.1%, and long-distance trains up 5.6%.
Northeast Highlights
On the Northeast Corridor, ridership for the high-speed Acela Express service saw a 2.9% increase in April 2011 vs. April 2010. In addition, April was the best month ever for the popular Northeast Regional service carrying a record 692,376 passengers which represents a 13.3% increase over the same month last year.
Central Highlights
Ridership on Midwestern routes remains strong with significant increases in April 2011 over April 2010.
The Chicago hub experienced steep corridor ridership gains as led by the Blue Water (Chicago – Port Huron) with a 28.4% increase; Illini/Saluki (Chicago-Carbondale) trains up 21%; the Wolverine Service (Chicago-Detroit/Pontiac) up 14%; and the Hiawatha Service (Chicago-Milwaukee) increased 7%.
West Highlights
Strong ridership continued in April 2011 on all of the three California state-supported routes when compared to April 2010.
The Capitol Corridor (Auburn – Sacramento – Emeryille/San Francisco – San Jose) was up 10.8%; the San Joaquin (Oakland/Sacramento – Bakersfield) up 18.3%; and the Pacific Surfliner (San Diego – Los Angeles – Santa Barbara – San Luis Obispo) up 8.2% over the same month last year.
Ridership on the Amtrak Cascades (Eugene, Ore. – Seattle – Vancouver, B.C.) also was up 6.9%, an increase that comes after months of severe weather related service disruptions on this route.
National Highlights
Among the 15 overnight long-distance Amtrak trains, ridership is up 7.7% in April 2011 vs. April 2010, with the largest percentage gains posted by the Silver Star (New York – Tampa – Miami) up 16%, the Lake Shore Limited (New York – Chicago) up 15.3% and the Southwest Chief (Chicago – Los Angeles) up 14.9%.
Factors contributing to the continuing success of Amtrak include strong Easter holiday travel in April, high gasoline prices which have trended higher, continued growth in business travel on the high-speed Acela Express trains with Wi-Fi service, the increased appeal and popularity of rail travel, and effective marketing campaigns.
The streak of 18 consecutive months of year-over-year ridership growth began in November 2009.
