Amtrak's Improving Ridership

[Jdog]

By Associated Press, Updated: Thursday, October 11, 8:34 AM


PORTLAND, Maine â€" Amtrak as well as its Downeaster passenger service between Maine and Boston have set new ridership records.

The national high-speed rail operator says its trains carried more than 31 million passengers in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. That marks the highest annual ridership total since Amtrak started operations in 1971.

Records were also set in other regions of the country, including New England. Downeaster ridership rose 4.3 percent to more than 541,000 passengers. Ethan Allen ridership between New York and Rutland, Vt., was up 10 percent to more than 54,000 and the Vermonter from Washington to St. Albans, Vt., had 5.5 percent more passengers at 82,000.

The Downeaster also set a ridership record for the fiscal year that ended June 30.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/amtrak-downeaster-trains-set-new-ridership-records/2012/10/11/f9514236-139f-11e2-9a39-1f5a7f6fe945_story.html

[fsquid]

I just want the NO to JAX line opened back up.

[If_I_Loved_you]

I just want the NO to JAX line opened back up.

That would be nice but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. 

[fsquid]

I just want the NO to JAX line opened back up.

That would be nice but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. 

I thought they were discussing it.

[If_I_Loved_you]

I just want the NO to JAX line opened back up.

That would be nice but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. 

I thought they were discussing it.

If Romney comes in Amtrak as we know it will be history. Sure they will keep the Boston to Washington in business and maybe the autotrain. But Amtrak will run more like MegaBus with fewer stops for a faster turn around.

[spuwho]

I just want the NO to JAX line opened back up.

That would be nice but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. 

I thought they were discussing it.

If Romney comes in Amtrak as we know it will be history. Sure they will keep the Boston to Washington in business and maybe the autotrain. But Amtrak will run more like MegaBus with fewer stops for a faster turn around.

I doubt it. Amtrak has a lot of Congressional support, especially in the western states that get little service from commercial airlines. I wouldn't be shocked if (based on his background) he finds an alternative way for Amtrak to function. Either through some kind of private operating agreements or spin off of routes to certain entities. But remember, it still has to pass Congress no matter what he proposes.

[Ocklawaha]

Every president after Richard Nixon, organized it, has been after Amtrak, except for Ford...

When Amtrak began service on May 1, 1971, an estimated 2/3 of all passenger trains were discontinued.

Ford signed the Amtrak Improvement Act of 1975, which might have had something to do with his remarkable talent for falling down the stairs of airplanes! The Pioneer (SEA-PDX-SLC) started in 1977, and the Desert Wind (LA-LV-SLC) started in 1979, and The 'Hilltopper' (BOS-DCA-CATLETTSBURG KY) was discontinued, all under Fords watch.

Reagan sent out a pack of attack dogs and did everything but personally pull up the tracks, yet Amtrak soldiered on. The most damage ever done was under Jimmy Carter, the Democrat President eliminated:

Floridian - year - ridership
1974 - 157,198
1975 - 139,670
1976 - 153,054
1977 - 146,500

National Limited
1975 - 163,422
1976 - 179,213
1977 - 191,692

North Coast Hiawatha
1973 - 227,200
1974 - 280,800
1975 - 208,809
1976 - 191,615
1977 - 205,642

Texas Chief/Lone Star
1973 - 257,800
1974 - 277,760
1975 - 255,881
1976 - 274,448

...And there were others.


President Carter eliminated 29% of the remaining route-miles in the Amtrak system. In 1981 Ronald Reagan became President, and at the urging of his Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Reagan proposed to end Amtrak service altogether. National Association of Railroad Passengers reacted by individual members passing out tens of thousands of leaflets in stations and on trains alerting the public that their trains would soon end unless they got their members of Congress to override the Reagan budget, Reagan just couldn't get the votes. .

The results were astonishing. Sen. James Exxon of Nebraska said, “I received more individual, handwritten letters on Amtrak than on any other topic, including Social Security. For the next twelve years, into the George H. W. Bush administration pretty much status quo, nothing much added, nothing much gained.

And under Clinton Amtrak was considered for a zero budget. Indeed, the restrictive budget under his administration was responsible for a 21% cut in train service to Florida. The Palmetto - NY-MIA/TPA was cut back to NY-Savannah (that's only 149 rail miles from 1.4 million persons in the Jacksonville metro market). The Silver Star was rerouted to the CSX 'A' Line abandoning all train service (and the infrastructure) in Waldo (Gainesville station), Ocala, Dade City after Florida spent $2 million dollars on rehabbing the old Union Station in Ocala into a modern Transportation Center, leaving it to Greyhound and Sun Tran. Clinton's DOT also master minded the elimination of the Desert Wind and Pioneer Trains.

Under GW Bush we got the 'Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008,' was signed into law by President Bush on October 16, 2008. The bill appropriates $2.6 billion a year in Amtrak funding through 2013. This is more then at any time in it's history.

Finally, President Barack Obama made two campaign promises related to Amtrak: fight for funding and reform Amtrak to be more accountable.

The administration earmarked money for Amtrak in his economic stimulus package and in his budgets for 2010, 2011 and 2012. Obama also issued a statement in favor of the MAP-21 Act, a surface transportation bill that includes funding for rail. The long-awaited transportation reauthorization bill Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) passed the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives on June 29, 2012.

Obama didn't specify how he would reform Amtrak, but his promise did reference his co-sponsorship of a bill that became the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, the last major law to deal with Amtrak reform. In his promise, Obama also mentioned that he would work "to improve accountability.”

That 2008 passenger rail law (under Bush) included accountability measures for Amtrak under a "Performance Improvement Plan.” For instance, it directs Amtrak to evaluate and rank each of its long-distance routes, post improvement plans on-line for the worst routes, and then implement those plans in 2010.

Amtrak published a chart ranking 15 long-distance routes based on customer satisfaction, on-time performance and cost recovery. It also published improvement plans for 10 of those routes.

So far Nothing but talk as to Obama's Amtrak reform.

So am I, 'THE RESIDENT MONSTER OF MOBILITY' worried that Mitt can kill Amtrak?  Fat chance!

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Otherwise would I support 'privatization of Amtrak?' Actually Amtrak's long distance routes could be privatized rather painlessly by the following method:

Amtrak doesn't own most of the track it operates over, they operate over private freight rail mainlines, companies which prior to 1971 operated the trains themselves.

Audit the route system

Hand the trains back to the operating railroads on a route by route/train by train basis

Toss the railroad a tax credit which not only makes the train profitable, but desirable, and anchor that credit in the route miles and train miles. The more trains and routes operated, the better the perks of tax credits.

Additional tax credits could be offered for a host of add on's, new trains, new routes, etc. 

Amtrak, could then assume the position of of a brokerage, moreover it could continue to operate a national reservation system and national scheduling matrix until the railroads could take over those functions.

So yes I would support, even encourage such an idea, fact is, ask ANYONE who remembers the great trains of the 1950's and the lavish and distinct services offered if the trains today are better... Folks it's a resounding NO!

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LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, MITT WON'T GET THE VOTES TO KILL AMTRAK.