In 1973 we used to watch Amtrak #4 come into San Bernardino, Calif. after 9 P.M. at near the beginning of its Los Angeles-Chicago run. It was exciting to see the 500-series, new SDP40F diesels. Back then it always had 18 passenger cars, made up of high levels, a dome, coaches, sleepers, a baggage car, etc. Now it leaves Los Angeles much earlier, consistently with only 6 high level cars. Sometimes with a baggage car. WHAT HAPPENED? Has ridership on Amtrak gotten that bad?
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According to Amtrak, ridership has increased steadily since 1972. There was a temporary drop in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid, but ridership since then has increased yearly from 22.9 million in 2022 to 28.6 million in 2023 and 32.8 million in 2024. Amtrak’s goal is to double its ridership to 66 million passengers per year by 2040.
Rich
For the four years ended FY24, Amtrak’s ridership increased 169.7 percent. The gains have varied significantly by segment. The NEC saw an increase of 218.4 percent compared to 162.7 percent for the State Supported Trains and 90.8 percent for the Long-distance Trains.
In FY21 the Long-distance trains carried 18.4 percent of Amtrak’s passengers; in FY24 they accounted for 13 percent of system passengers. Over the same period the NEC increased its percentage of system passengers from 36.2 percent to 42.8 percent while the State Supported Trains decreased from 45.4 percent to 44.2 percent.
2 things to consider
1: Superliners carry more passengers than the previous high levels.
2: Long distance trains are not where the primary ridership really is on Amtrak.
I tried to look up the ridership numbers for specific routes, but all the current news is just repeating the same talking points, but over the past 10-15? years, the biggest corridors were
1: NEC
2: Pacific Surfliner
3: Capital Corridor/San Joaquin.
4: Cascades
I think that’s the order for 3 and 4.
There have been some “newer” services that may have disrupted that, but as far as I know, 1 and 2 have remained unchanged for some time.
So, Southwest Chief is not where the ridership is.
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Amtrak’s ridership numbers for each of Amtrak’s routes can be found on the last page of Amtrak’s Monthly Performance Report. The September report shows the YTD numbers for the twelve months ended September 30th, which is the end of Amtrak’s fiscal year.
The Route Level Results YTD September FY24, shows Ridership (Thousands) in Column 5 of the September 2024 Report. For example, YTD 24 the Southwest chief carried 261,500 riders.
If I remember correctly, a rider differs from a passenger. When I take the Texas Eagle from Temple, TX to El Paso, TX and back, I am one passenger but two riders.
I suspect the LD counts are being affected more by Amtrak’s lack of serviceable equipment than it is by lack of demand.
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