Dive Brief:
- Amtrak set a new high in ridership in fiscal year 2024, the railroad company announced Tuesday. Across all routes, Amtrak recorded 32.8 million customer trips, representing a 15% increase over FY 2023 and exceeding pre-pandemic ridership by roughly 300,000 trips.
- The national passenger railroad also saw record-high ticket revenue of $2.5 billion and a 7% year-over-year increase in total operating revenue of $3.6 billion.
- Amtrak Board Chair Tony Coscia said in a statement that the railroad’s record ridership “reflects not only the need for train travel in America but also the impact of strategic investments” that improve service and reliability while increasing train capacity.
Dive Insight:
Amtrak set a goal of increasing yearly ridership to 66 million by 2040. With the help of massive funding from the 2021 infrastructure law, the railroad launched one new train service, expanded four other routes and invested billions in infrastructure upgrades last year.
Much of that investment has gone into the Northeast Corridor: the heavily traveled route between Boston, New York City and Washington, D.C., home to seven of Amtrak’s top 10 busiest train stations. The corridor saw an all-time high in ridership in August, Amtrak President Roger Harris said at an American Public Transportation Association conference in October.
Harris pointed out that frequent train schedules and reliable service draw passengers to rail travel in the Northeast Corridor but that many long-distance trains run only once a day. He said that more frequent service is needed to make these long-distance trains, such as the Capitol Limited from Washington, D.C. to Chicago and the Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles, more attractive to riders. Nevertheless, ridership on Amtrak’s long-distance trains grew 8% in fiscal 2024 compared with the prior year.
Many other Amtrak routes are funded by states. There are 30 such routes, each no more than 750 miles between end points, with states contributing over $900 million annually to Amtrak. Ridership on these state-supported trains increased 16% in FY 2024 over the previous fiscal year.
Harris said at the APTA conference that when he joined Amtrak in 2022, relationships between the states and the passenger railroad were “a little bit contentious.” He worked to improve those relationships. “We need each other,” he said. “Many of our states have ideas that we haven't even thought of yet.”
Amtrak has new, faster Acela trains coming to the Northeast Corridor this winter, Harris said. He also expects new 125-mph train sets, built by Siemens Mobility in Sacramento, California, to arrive in 2026, replacing nearly 50-year-old coaches on many intercity routes such as those in Maine, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington state.
“Through bold investments, strong partnerships with states and host railroads, and dedicated planning, we are doubling down on our vision to connect more people and communities like never before,” said Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner in a statement.
