March turned out to be very good to Amtrak as a record number of travelers opted to use its service, "helping the rail company achieve higher ridership numbers in the first six months of fiscal 2013," the carrier said today.
According to USA Today, "from October 2012 to March 2013, ridership increased by 0.9 percent to 15.1 million riders compared with the same period the previous year."
The increase wasn't just due to certain lines or route, Amtrak stated that In all, 26 of 45 routes had ridership increases in the first six months of the fiscal year.
Meaning, by the time the fiscal year ends in October, the government-subsidized railroad expects to match or exceed last year's record of 31.2 million passengers.
However, on their most popular route, the Northeast Corridor line, they actual lost customers, "5.5 million passengers in the first half of the fiscal year, a 1.2 percent decrease from the same time period last year," USA Today reported.
But, the decline can be accredited to last year's Sandy storm.
Amtrak spokesman Steve Kulm says Amtrak has been in a period of growth for nine of the last 10 years.
The introduction of high-speed Acela service on the Northeast Corridor, better on-time performance, free Wi-Fi open to 70 percent of passengers, and a new ticketing system that lets people present their tickets on their Smartphones all contributes to the slow and steady rise.
The other factor of the growth is Amtrak's extended service to parts of Virginia, Washington state, and North Carolina.
It is also sensible to use transit to avoid highway traffic.
"They're [the passengers] fed up with highway congestion, they don't like the hassles of airline travel, gas prices are high, and there's a movement to support rail travel," Kulm said to USA Today..
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
