Amtrak Cascades Statistics Posted

[CHamilton]

The Washington State DOT has posted a nice page showing Cascades statistics, including ridership, performance and revenue. I don't recall seeing it before, but for the AU statisticians, here it is: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Rail/PerformanceReports.htm

An interesting footnote that may have affected national numbers:

*Amtrak experienced a problem with its ticket system in the first part of 2012 that affected the ridership data. As a result, the data Amtrak originally provided for February, March, April, May and June contained errors. WSDOT received corrections for February, March, April and May. Amtrak is working on the corrections for June. These charts reflect the corrected data submitted by Amtrak for the months of February through May, and the original data for June.

 

[afigg]

The Washington State DOT has posted a nice page showing Cascades statistics, including ridership, performance and revenue. I don't recall seeing it before, but for the AU statisticians, here it is: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Rail/PerformanceReports.htm

An interesting footnote that may have affected national numbers:

*Amtrak experienced a problem with its ticket system in the first part of 2012 that affected the ridership data. As a result, the data Amtrak originally provided for February, March, April, May and June contained errors. WSDOT received corrections for February, March, April and May. Amtrak is working on the corrections for June. These charts reflect the corrected data submitted by Amtrak for the months of February through May, and the original data for June.

Thanks for the link. The Cascades report provide a level of detail in numbers and stats that we don't see for other corridors. The 2011 annual shows that the Cascades achieved a farebox recovery of 65.8% in FY2011, up from a recovery of 54.1% in FY2009. If they can prevent the mudslides, implement the trip time and service frequency improvements in the plans, might be possible to reach break even for the operating costs.

We will see if Amtrak issues revised Monthly reports to correct errors in the ridership numbers.

 

[Anderson]

All very interesting. I think what is key is the "march towards break even", not to mention the fact that I presume those numbers don't account for cafe sales (which would likely be a couple hundred thousand more). Mind you, break-even is likely at least a decade off, but each percent that gets knocked off the gap makes things a bit easier over the long haul.