WASHINGTON –Amtrak ridership surged in April to be the best April on record and extends the national passenger railroad’s streak to 18 consecutive months of year-over-year ridership growth.
Ridership for April 2011 was nearly 2.7 million passengers which represents an increase of 9.9 percent over April 2010 and keeps America’s Railroadsm on track to set a new annual ridership record.
This strong performance is part of a long-term trend that has seen Amtrak set annual ridership records in seven of the last eight fiscal years, including more than 28.7 million passengers in FY 2010, Amtrak officials said.
Comparing the first seven months of FY 2011 (October – April) to the same time period in FY 2010, national Amtrak ridership is up 6.5 percent so far this fiscal year and all three major business lines are showing gains: the Northeast Corridor up 4.8 percent, state-supported and other short distance corridors up 8.1 percent, and long-distance trains up 5.6 percent.
