Amtrak issued a Amtrak On Pace To Set New Ridership Record press release touting ridership growth of +3.7% for the first 6 months of Fiscal Year 2012. The ridership was up +1.9% for the first 3 months, October - December, and +2.5% for October-January, so there has been a surge in the past 3 months. Hello, $4 a gallon gas!
The press release has the total numbers for the 6 month periods for the train services, does not have revenue numbers. Once the February Monthly report is officially posted, the March numbers can be extracted to see what the bump was in March alone.
Summary:
NEC +5.2%
Acela -1.3% (the ticket price increase continue to hurt)
NE Regional +8.2% (going to get crowded year round if this keeps up)
State Supported and Other Short distance corridors: +2.7%
LD Trains: +3.7%
Trains with notable increases:
Ethan Allan +9.0%
Lincoln service +8.2%
Heartland Flyer +10.6%
Capitol Corridor +6.7%
San Joaquin +11.5%
Washington-Lynchburg +27.4% (keeping the streak of > 25% growth going)
Washington-Newport News +16.0%
Piedmont +15.1%
Texas Eagle +16.3%
There are some trains with reduced ridership, but they can mostly be explained:
Acela -1.3%, Surfliner -5.7%: aggressive ticket price increases
Vermonter -11.8% : long service interruption last year hurt, also warm winter weather might have hurt ridership for ski trips
Wolverine: -6.8%: ridership had recovered by February, but the NS slow orders in March set it back again
Carolinian -5.8%, Palmetto -8.0%: CSX track work in March resulted in no Palmetto service and no Carolinian service north of Raleigh Monday through Thursday for the entire month.
Pennsylvanian -0.3% : should be doing better
Albany-Niagara Falls-Toronto -4.4% : don't know why this is down
Once the Acela, Surfliner recover from ticket price increases and Vermonter, Wolverine recover from track work outages, they should get on the plus side for growth which could bump Amtrak to > +5% annual growth numbers.
The press release has the total numbers for the 6 month periods for the train services, does not have revenue numbers. Once the February Monthly report is officially posted, the March numbers can be extracted to see what the bump was in March alone.
Summary:
NEC +5.2%
Acela -1.3% (the ticket price increase continue to hurt)
NE Regional +8.2% (going to get crowded year round if this keeps up)
State Supported and Other Short distance corridors: +2.7%
LD Trains: +3.7%
Trains with notable increases:
Ethan Allan +9.0%
Lincoln service +8.2%
Heartland Flyer +10.6%
Capitol Corridor +6.7%
San Joaquin +11.5%
Washington-Lynchburg +27.4% (keeping the streak of > 25% growth going)
Washington-Newport News +16.0%
Piedmont +15.1%
Texas Eagle +16.3%
There are some trains with reduced ridership, but they can mostly be explained:
Acela -1.3%, Surfliner -5.7%: aggressive ticket price increases
Vermonter -11.8% : long service interruption last year hurt, also warm winter weather might have hurt ridership for ski trips
Wolverine: -6.8%: ridership had recovered by February, but the NS slow orders in March set it back again
Carolinian -5.8%, Palmetto -8.0%: CSX track work in March resulted in no Palmetto service and no Carolinian service north of Raleigh Monday through Thursday for the entire month.
Pennsylvanian -0.3% : should be doing better
Albany-Niagara Falls-Toronto -4.4% : don't know why this is down
Once the Acela, Surfliner recover from ticket price increases and Vermonter, Wolverine recover from track work outages, they should get on the plus side for growth which could bump Amtrak to > +5% annual growth numbers.