Empire Builder ridership up 10%

All of Amtrak's routes have benefited from higher gas and airline prices.

Staff and wire reports

Last update: October 10, 2008 - 3:49 PM

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Ridership is up almost 10 percent this year on the Empire Builder, the long-distance passenger train route that stops in St. Paul on its route between Chicago and the Pacific Northwest, Amtrak said today.

The route carried carried 554,000 riders during the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, a 9.8 percent increase over the previous year. The Empire Builder remains Amtrak's most popular long-distance route.

Nationwide, Amtrak carried a record 28.7 million people last year, with each of its routes seeing gains, the national passenger railroad said.

Amtrak Chief Executive Alex Kummant cited high gasoline and airline prices, highway and airport congestion and Amtrak's improved service as reasons for the national increase.

The company has posted six years of ridership and revenue growth. The number of trips over the past year increased 11 percent over the 25.8 million taken in fiscal year 2007.

Total ticket revenue for the year that ended Sept. 30 reached $1.7 billion — also a record for the 37-year-old government-owned corporation and a 14 percent increase over the $1.5 billion taken in the previous year.

Amtrak, long criticized for its reliance on government subsidies, has also been enjoying a stronger position in Washington.

Earlier this month, Congress passed legislation that sets funding targets of $13 billion over five years in a major vote of confidence for the company. President Bush, a staunch Amtrak critic, is expected to sign the bill, which also includes broad new rail safety provisions.

The bill also calls for about $1.9 billion in federal matching grants to states for rail projects. Amtrak hopes that money will encourage more states to pay for short-distance, "corridor" service.

Those kinds of routes have provided recent success stories for Amtrak, and they accounted for the steepest gains in the figures announced Friday.

The Hiawatha line between Chicago and Milwaukee, for example, carried 750,000 passengers last year, a 26 percent increase.

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