Amtrak’s Cascades service experienced an eight-fold increase in ridership from 1995 to 2010
Amtrak carried a record 31.2 million passengers in 2012, making rail the fastest growing mode of personal transportation in America,
the Washington Post reported today. There's no mystery why Amtrak is beating driving and flying for medium length trips. Rail is safer than driving, takes passengers to convenient in town locations, and avoids the hassles of heavy traffic and airport security. Since 1997 Amtrak ridership has risen 55%.
Republican politicians have long decried supporting Amtrak while demanding massive federal subsidies to their states for highways. Federal and state gas tax revenues have been inadequate to fund highway maintenance and construction for many years. Highways get much more money from general revenues than rail.
Congressional leadership of the House transportation committee changed this year from Rep. John L. Mica (R.-Fl) to Rep. Bill Shuster (R.-Pa.). Mica railed that Amtrack was Soviet, so almost anyone would be an improvement. Shuster has a pretty positive attitude towards rail for a Republican because Pennsylvania heavily uses passenger rail. Philadelphia is America's third busiest rail hub. Shuster is advocating focusing on developing high speed rail on the north-east corridor.
“I think there’s a need for passenger rail in this country,” Shuster told The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, suggesting that Amtrak needed to “get closer to break even.”
Analysis of ridership and revenues shows that trips that take a day or less are by far the most popular and potentially profitable. At present speeds, trips of 400 miles or less carry 90% of the passengers. High speed rail could change that equation in multiple ways. It could make rail the fastest transportation for many routes from urban center to urban center along much of the east and west coasts. Time wasted in airport security and in ground transportation from airports makes short to medium trips by air frustratingly slow. There's little room to build more highways, so existing highways are becoming more crowded. Therefore, passenger rail is poised to grow even faster if money is invested in high speed rail.
The Brookings-Rockefeller study showed that nearly 90 percent of the ridership increase since 1997 has been trips of less than 400 miles, generating a positive operating balance of $47 million in 2011. Longer routes carried the rest of the passengers and lost $614 million, the study said. Overall, Amtrak receives a $1.5 billion federal subsidy each year.
Los Angeles' Union Station is a place you want to visit, unlike LAX.
Rail uses less carbon per passenger mile than autos or planes. If electrified rail is used, conversion to renewable energy will further reduce the carbon footprint of passenger rail.
For much more on rail and HSR read BruceMcF's Sunday Train series.