WASHINGTON – Amtrak set a new annual ridership record of 28.7 million passengers for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and collected a record $1.74 billion in ticket revenue.
The strong performance is evidence that the demand for passenger rail service is rising and that more Americans are choosing Amtrak — a greener and more convenient travel mode.
“We thank every passenger for choosing Amtrak to meet their intercity travel needs,” said President and CEO Joseph Boardman. “More and more people see passenger rail as a way to get to where they need to go, and when our front line employees put them first, it helps to bring passengers back for another trip.”
A year-over-year comparison of FY 2010 to FY 2009 shows total Amtrak ridership grew by 5.7 percent, or about 1.55 million passengers, and all Amtrak business lines experienced growth including the Northeast Corridor (up 4.3 percent), long-distance trains (up 6.6 percent), and state-supported and other short-distance routes (up 6.5 percent.) Over the same period, ticket revenue increased 9 percent, or more than $140 million.
