What % of the population takes Amtrak?

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I suppose we could narrow that down a bit to Americans who live within, say, two hours of an Amtrak station.

I'm not disputing Ryan's calculation, but it would be kind of fun to figure out what percentage of people who don't have to drive really far use Amtrak. So if we took out, say, AK, HI, and other states that don't have convenient access, that percentage might change to 15 or 20%. (This is wild speculation, obviously.)
 
RyanS said:
I don't think that it exists.

All we know is less than 10% (31 million riders in FY2013, 300 million Americans).
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Amtrak could probably make an estimate based on credit and debit card purchases, counting the number of different accounts and names. But that does not cover cash purchases (which are likely a small percentage of ticket sales these days) nor foreign travelers. But why would Amtrak want to do so? The 31 million passengers is a better marketing spin.

BTW, the population of the United States was just under 317 million according to the US Census as of January 1, 2013.
 
MiRider said:
I've searched high and low and all I can find is ridership numbers, ridership increases, etc. but not the number of actual distinct pax.

TIA
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The number of distinct riders is naturally less than the reported ridership totals. Given the frequency of the NEC trains, it would be difficult to determine the actual number of distinct riders. As someone has mentioned, the 31 millions ridership number looks pretty strong from a PR and Marketing perspective, but the better spin is the strong percentage increase year over year for the past 7-8 years. Also, the revenue numbers have grown with a healthy % increase as well.
 
RyanS said:
I don't think that it exists.

All we know is less than 10% (31 million riders in FY2013, 300 million Americans).
Click to expand...
It absolutely exists, both as a real number of actual people and as an estimated number that Amtrak would track internally.

My guess is that anything close to 10% is ludicrously high with 5% representing a logical maximum and 1% being closer to a practical average.
 
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RyanS said:
I don't think that it exists.

All we know is less than 10% (31 million riders in FY2013, 300 million Americans).
Click to expand...
I guess many of those will be commuters or other regular (repeat) users, so the percentage of riders to non-riders will be much lower than that.

Maybe one way to get a very rough idea would be to think of all your family and friends whose travel activities you are aware of, removing of course those you met through railfan specific activities such as this forum. How many of those people have travelled on a train this week, this month, this year, ever? The result may vary a bit depending on your geographical location. But it may be a rough indicator.
 
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Devil's Advocate said:
RyanS said:
I don't think that it exists.

All we know is less than 10% (31 million riders in FY2013, 300 million Americans).
Click to expand...
It absolutely exists, both as a real number of actual people and as an estimated number that Amtrak would track internally.

My guess is that anything close to 10% is ludicrously high with 5% representing a logical maximum and 1% being closer to a practical average.
Click to expand...
Concur on that. Just think of normal everyday people you know or run into,

I don't know anyone that takes Amtrak.

The NEC accounts for how many of those 31 million riders?

How many of those riders are daily commuters?
 
Devil's Advocate said:
RyanS said:
I don't think that it exists.

All we know is less than 10% (31 million riders in FY2013, 300 million Americans).
Click to expand...
It absolutely exists, both as a real number of actual people and as an estimated number that Amtrak would track internally.

My guess is that anything close to 10% is ludicrously high with 5% representing a logical maximum and 1% being closer to a practical average.
Click to expand...
Agreed completely. 10% is a theoretical max assuming every one of them is a unique one way passenger.
If I were to guess, I'd put the number under 1%.
 
Another good question is "What % of the population knows Amtrak even exists?" Norman gets 2 turns of the Heartland Flyer daily and a lot of folks are surprised when they find out a "People Train" stops here. This number is especially high amongst the University of Oklahoma students but then again many college students are totally unaware of life outside of Campus. Amtrak even periodically advertises in the Student Fishwrap with sample fares to FTW and points beyond.
 
It's quite impossible to reliably tell one person riding twice on different days apart from two separate people riding on different days -- I mean, governments may make efforts to tie people to a supposed "unique real identity", but there's simply no way to do it reliably, and no good reason to do so, either. (There's a reason we all vote on the same day.)
 
Furthermore, no other transportation method even tries to measure this, so it's not useful for comparison purposes. Do the airlines know how many unique travellers they have? No, they don't. Probably less than 5% of the population of the US take an airplane in any given year. Jetsetters, meanwhile, are flying daily.
 
If they want to get ridership up, get the fares slightly more competitive with the airlines, make the schedules more friendly, give passenger trains the right-of-way over freights, and, at least on the Coast Starlight, go back to Pullman-style sleepers with conventional toilet paper dispensers.

I would ride more often if they did that, and I have lifetime free airline travel. I love to ride trains.
 
I would agree that 1% is the maximum, and probably the true number is much less than 1% of distinct USA residents ride Amtrak each year.
 
MiRider said:
Concur on that. Just think of normal everyday people you know or run into,

I don't know anyone that takes Amtrak.

The NEC accounts for how many of those 31 million riders?

How many of those riders are daily commuters?
Click to expand...
Wherever there is corridor service lots of folks ride for regular transportation, not just in the NEC. The "Cascades" up here are very popular and people where I work often take Amtrak for business trips to Portland. The aren't in the least railfans, but take it because they don't have to deal with Interstate 5 or the airport, and can get work done onboard.
 
MiRider said:
Devil's Advocate said:
RyanS said:
I don't think that it exists.

All we know is less than 10% (31 million riders in FY2013, 300 million Americans).
Click to expand...
It absolutely exists, both as a real number of actual people and as an estimated number that Amtrak would track internally.

My guess is that anything close to 10% is ludicrously high with 5% representing a logical maximum and 1% being closer to a practical average.
Click to expand...
Concur on that. Just think of normal everyday people you know or run into,

I don't know anyone that takes Amtrak.

The NEC accounts for how many of those 31 million riders?

How many of those riders are daily commuters?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I'm sure that 31 million counts Amtrak California's CC, SJ, and PS services, which are essentially commuter trains. They don't even feel like Amtrak. Most of those passengers are probably commuters too, which may ride at least once a week.

I agree, it's impossible to do a really good calculation unless Amtrak releases the information, which they probably have.
 
the_traveler said:
OlympianHiawatha said:
Another good question is "What % of the population knows Amtrak even exists?".
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That is true! I heard someone (AlanB I think) got a cab and say he wanted to go to the train station. The driver's reply? :huh: "We have passenger trains here?" I think it was in Miami!
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Aloha

It was Me, I had flown into Miami or a convention at the Fountainbleu Hotel. I was leaving on a rout that Traver would be proud of. I went to LA via Jacksonville, Washington, Philadelphia, and Chicago. Three Cab drivers at the Taxi stand said that. The Hotel doorman had to call the Amtrak Station to get me a cab to take me to the train station.
 
the_traveler said:
SarahZ said:
I suppose we could narrow that down a bit to Americans who live within, say, two hours of an Amtrak station. ... people who don't have to drive really far use Amtrak. So if we took out, say, AK, HI, and other states that don't have convenient access
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Eric (GG-1) lived in Hawaii for years, and rode Amtrak!
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Aloha

I had to fly :huh: 5 1/2 hours to get to the Train station. For some reason there wasn't a bridge between the Islands and the Mainland. :lol:
 
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I said convenient access, not access only after doing the TSA Bunny Hop. ;)
 
Every time you step onto a different train number, you're counted once as a rider. That includes making connections on the same trip in the same direction. On your return journey, you're counted again.

As an example, when I go from ATL to MSP and back, I am counted as six riders -- three in each direction -- since I'm riding three different trains each way.
 
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