{"id":67979,"date":"2024-06-18T16:55:47","date_gmt":"2024-06-18T06:55:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=67979"},"modified":"2024-06-18T16:55:55","modified_gmt":"2024-06-18T06:55:55","slug":"amtrak-set-to-break-ridership-record-in-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=67979","title":{"rendered":"Amtrak set to break ridership record in 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Amtrak has announced it expects ridership to top 2019 \u2014 pre-COVID \u2014 levels this year and reach a new all-time record high even though it currently has less capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.trains.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Amtrak_Logo_Square-200x200.jpg\" alt=\"Amtrak logo.\" class=\"wp-image-97620\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Ridership is reported 20% higher in the first 8 months of Amtrak\u2019s budget year that began Oct. 1, 2023. Ticket revenue is showing a 10% increase versus the same period in 2023, according to written&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/transportation.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/06-12-2024_rph_hearing_-_stephen_gardner_-_testimony.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">testimony by Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner<\/a>presented at a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials on June 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are on target to set a new all-time ridership record by exceeding the 32.3 million passengers,\u201d says Gardner. This would exceed the previous record set in 2019. From 2003 to the 2019 record, Amtrak saw a 45% passenger growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The lasting effects of the COVID pandemic still hamper Amtrak, according to Gardner. While the railroad\u2019s year-to-date revenue is higher than in 2019, it \u201chas been impacted by the reduced business travel since the pandemic as virtual meetings have replaced many short-duration business trips,\u201d Gardner says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The increases come despite capacity challenges in a number of critical areas, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Delays in starting service with new Siemens Venture cars for state partners on Midwestern and California routes.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Delays with the new Alstom Acela trainsets on the Northeast Corridor due to continued testing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Continued closures for extended periods of the Pacific Coast route in Southern California caused by increased erosion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Amtrak previously announced that it plans to double its ridership across the system by 2040. Additionally, plans call for 20% weekday service increases along the Northeast Corridor over the next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Trains.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Amtrak has announced it expects ridership to top 2019 \u2014 pre-COVID \u2014 levels this year and reach a new all-time record high even though it currently has less capacity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":67980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1304,35,47],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-67979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amtrak","category-breaking-news","category-rail-news","tag-usa"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67981,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67979\/revisions\/67981"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}