So, I started with my list of stations with less ridership than Slidell, LA, and I did this:
- leave out flagstops
- leave out stops without daily year-round service
- leave out Hoosier State stops, which we can expect to do poorly (and they do)
- leave out stops on the Vermonter and Adirondack (which dominate the bottom of the chart)
The remaining "lowest ridership stations" are, in order from lowest ridership up:
Wishram, WA (Empire Builder Portland Section)
Lamar, CO (at-risk section of SW Chief -- no loss!)
HER (CZ)
HLD (CZ)
Framingham, MA (LSL Boston Section)
GRI (CZ)
Cut Bank, Montana (EB)
FMG (CZ)
Gilman, IL (Illini/Saluki)
GRA (CZ)
...at which point it became obvious that the CZ was also very overrepresented among the low-ridership stations.
It's a little surprising to me that the CZ has no flagstops, as a "flagstop" policy would seem to make sense for it.
Leaving out CZ stations as well, I got a new list, which I proceeded to analyze. The Empire Builder and Texas Eagle are rather overrepresented in that list. But almost every route has a few "low-ridership" stops.
So I looked at flagstop policy.
Now, the flagstop policy of the Texas Eagle makes sense -- the flagstops are the lowest ridership stops (or one stop shared with the Lincoln Service).
But for contrast: the Empire Builder has one flagstop, Essex MT. But it has four stations with lower ridership than Essex -- so why aren't these stations flagstops?
Wishram, WA (Empire Builder Portland Section)
Cut Bank, Montana (EB)
Bingen-White Salmon, WA (EB Portland Section)
Ephrata, WA (EB Seattle Section)
The Silver Star has no flagstops. As long as it's on the current route, it probably should: it has four low-ridership stations on its trip south of Cary through the Carolinas:
Camden, SC
Hamlet, NC
Denmark, SC
Southern Pines, NC (7554 on/offs, the most of the four)
(Columbia's the only one on this section with ridership above my arbitrary cutoff)
Also, Okechobee, FL has low ridership (3851). It's between Miami and Tampa, but it is only served by the Silver Star, not the Meteor, and the circuitous routing to Tampa probably suppresses ridership.
The Crescent's flagstop policy badly needs adjustment. As noted earlier, Slidell has more ridership than many non-flagstops and probably shouldn't be a flagstop. Other non-flagstops on the Crescent with less ridership than Slidell:
Spartanburg, SC
Clemson, SC
Anniston, AL
Gainesville, GA
As noted before, the at-risk section of the SW Chief is mostly low-ridership.
These are the lowest-ridership stations with 2 or more Amtrak trains each way per day (starting with the worst):
Gilman, IL (Illini/Saluki)
Dowagiac, MI (Wolverine 2/day)
Stanwood, WA (Cascades -- ridership suppressed by mudslides?)
Rantoul, IL (Illini/Saluki)
Glendale, CA (Pacific Surfliner, but Metrolink is probably taking ridership)
Elyria, Ohio (LSL & CL -- given the state of the station people probably drive to Cleveland)
Plano, IL (Quincy Service)
Hammond/Whiting, IN (Wolverine 2/day) -- 7763 on/offs
Gilman and Rantoul may simply have reached maximum demand.
Santa Clara-University is the lowest-ridership station to be served by 3 or more trains each way per day -- at 8635 on/offs. But it's fairly new and people are probably still using the other Santa Clara station.
Other stations where ridership is probably diverted to other operators' trains:
Framingham, MA (LSL Boston Section -- eastbound riders take the MBTA, while delays on the LSL may discourage westbound ridership)
Michigan City, IN (Wolverine 1/day only; people clearly take South Shore Line if going west)
Burke Center, VA (mostly a VRE station)
Rockville, MD (Capitol Limited, but mostly a WMATA subway station)
Finally, other "low-ridership" (less than Slidell LA) stations which are not on any of the previous lists of things I excluded, not mentioned earlier, and also not on the Texas Eagle or Empire Builder:
Purcell, OK (Heartland Flyer)
Barstow, CA (SW Chief)
Bangor, MI (Pere Marquette)
Newbern, TN (CONO)
Castleton, VT (Ethan Allen Express)
Alliance, Ohio (Capitol Limited)
Winslow, AZ (SW Chief)
Connellsville, PA (Capitol Limited)
Brookhaven, MS (City of New Orleans)
Pauls Valley, OK (Heartland Flyer)
Dunsmuir, CA (Coast Starlight)
Williams Junction, NM (SW Chief)
Lawrence, KS (SW Chief)
None of these particularly surprise me or leave me with anything to say.