Month: November 2013

The Northeast Corridor is an “asset of national importance” and requires significant upgrades in order ensure it remains in good working order, the head of Amtrak recently told a subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

ATLANTA — While Amtrak has reduced how much it is losing on food and beverage service, the passenger railroad still lost $72 million in Fiscal Year 2012, according to a recent report from the inspector general. Nearly all of the loss — $71.5 million — was on the railroad’s long-distance routes. The railroad did see an $800,000 profit on the Northeast Corridor. The Auto Train was the biggest loser, hemorrhaging more than $13 million during the year, according to the inspector general’s report. The railroad’s food and beverage losses have totaled more than $1 billion over the last 12 years,

ATLANTA — Amtrak is urging passengers to book their Thanksgiving holiday train tickets early to avoid missing out on the best availability and pricing. The busiest travel days, the ones most likely to sell out, are the Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday following the holiday. Amtrak saw a record 737,537 passengers travel by train during the Thanksgiving holiday a year ago. That broke the previous record set during the holiday in 2011. In a statement, Amtrak said it “will operate every available passenger rail car in its fleet and is scheduling extra trains and adding capacity on