I am pleased to see this:
According to Rip the MofW guy, the patronage of various passenger rail systems throughout the country posted increases from 2004 to 2005. The first part of Rip's data covers---I assume---"heavy rail" (i.e. things we think of as traditional trains) as opposed to "light rail", which is usually trolleys, trams, and the like.
The figures he has show gains in the three Amtrak California services, with a nearly double digit gain in one of them. Of course, Trains magazine has said in the past that the State of California and her citizens have made deliberate policy choices that improved service and attracted riders, so it is not necessarily unexpected to see growth in California passenger operations. At the same time, it's not unwelcome, either. The more people that get used to taking trains, the better, because that may allow policy-makers to do something other than "add another HOV lane". Hopefully such thinking will spread to the Commonwealth of Virginia. Hint hint, Interstate 81.
He also points out excellent growth in "transit" patronage in various urban markets. I don't know exactly what "transit" means---it is a term of art---so I'll have to reserve commentary on this. I further suggest that you go to his site and read the entire post for what appears to be a majority of good results.
It is also pleasing to see that Metro-North posts increases. They incorporate part of the old New Haven Railroad, and everyone in the East should love the New Haven.
Also worth noting are data from Amtrak, courtesy of the February 2006 issue of Trains. The specifics are rather detailed and I don't have a single figure for how many percent of increase there was, but Amtrak did post a record patronage figure for the third year in a row. For the fiscal year ending 30 September 2005, Amtrak hauled 25,374,998 passengers to points all over the country, from the Northeast Corridor to the route of the California Zephyr.
This, even while certain political figures in Washington, D.C. try to zero in on the final annihilation of the alternate to Southwest Airlines known as Amtrak. (With apologies to Glen A. Larson.)
Posted by Country Pundit at February 3, 2006 06:41 PM | TrackBack