The United States has yet to fully embrace passenger rail as a way to curb traffic despite rail’s success in other countries, an Amtrak official told a U.S. Senate subcommittee this week.
Amtrak this month reported unaudited record revenue totaling approximately $3.2 billion for the fiscal year, representing the fifth consecutive year of revenue growth, and the eighth out of the past nine years, the railroad said.
Amtrak is suggesting passengers book their Thanksgiving holiday train tickets sooner rather than later to avoid missing out on the best availability and pricing.
The number of people who took Amtrak in Fiscal Year 2014 increased 0.2 percent from a year earlier while ticket revenues increased 4 percent, the railroad said. “Amtrak is clearly selling a product that is very much in demand,” Amtrak Board Chairman Tony Coscia said in a news release. “Achieving strong ridership and revenue despite the challenges with aging infrastructure and freight rail congestion demonstrates Amtrak’s commitment to improving its financial and operating performance, and is a credit to Amtrak’s management and staff. It is now time to leverage Amtrak’s successes in increasing ridership and improving performance by making much-needed
Amtrak’s on-time performance has dropped during the first eight months of the fiscal year, according to an analysis of the railroad’s performance numbers.
Amtrak is looking to acquire new high-speed trainsets that will supplement and eventually replace its Acela Express in use on the Northeast Corridor (NEC).