The 100 percent on time performance is especially noteworthy in that formerly, on-time performance in past years ranged between 55 percent to 79 percent.
Jefferson City, MO – infoZine – The Missouri Department of Transportation reports a 100 percent on-time performance for Amtrak trains and their passengers during the Thanksgiving holiday week. Read the full story
Chicago Union Station
CHICAGO – Amtrak says 1.8 million passengers rode its state-supported trains in Illinois in fiscal year 2009, a slight increase from 2008.
The Illinois Department of Transportation supports several Amtrak routes. The most popular are the routes from Chicago to St. Louis and from Chicago to Milwaukee. Read the full story
Ottumwa Amtrak Station, Iowa
DES MOINES, Iowa – Amtrak ridership in Iowa broke a record this year, with more than 66,000 passengers getting on and off trains at Iowa stations during the federal budget year that ended Sept. 30.
That was a 3 percent increase, or about 2,000 more passengers compared with a year earlier. Officials say it was the most in Iowa since Congress created Amtrak in 1971. Read the full story
All aboard on this train doesn’t mean just people. It means minivans, cars and motorcycles, too.
To board you have to be packing some serious luggage: every traveller must also be transporting a vehicle. Amtrak’s Auto Train, the only one like it in the nation, has only two stops: one near Orlando, Fla., and the other in Virginia near Washington, D.C. For more than 25 years it has carried vacationers and their vehicles, and a new $10 million station expected to open in Florida in 2010 may mean even more passengers. Read the full story
Oct. 29 (Bloomberg) — Amtrak, the U.S. passenger railroad, said it will equip Acela high-speed trains on its Northeast Corridor with free Wi-Fi Internet access next year as part of an effort to attract more riders. Read the full story
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Amtrak has put a nearly $518 million price tag on Ohio’s plan to restore passenger train service to its major cities, a higher-than-expected cost driven by the need to buy new rail cars that challenges the state’s goal of running trains as early as 2011.
Amtrak’s inventory is tight, and because of the significant number of train sets and coaches required to launch service connecting Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton and Cincinnati, about $175 million in new equipment is needed instead of refurbishing cars currently in storage, the agency recommended in a study released last week. That would bump up the expected cost to $517.6 million, Amtrak said. State transportation officials had anticipated the overall cost to be lower, closer to $400 million.
Designing and delivering the new train cars would take several years, Amtrak said.
“I think 2011 is pushing it,” said Ken Prendergast, executive director of All Aboard Ohio, a rail advocacy group.
The much-anticipated Amtrak study gave Ohio the key data it needs to meet an Oct. 2 deadline to apply for a slice of $8 billion in federal stimulus money that President Barack Obama has set aside for rail projects. Front-runners appear to be high-speed rail projects in the Midwest and California.
Amtrak predicted that startup service in Ohio, with conventional-speed trains running up to 79 mph, would draw 478,000 riders each year, comparable to the agency’s Chicago to St. Louis route, which has similar demographics. About 6 million people live along the 255-mile Ohio route, making it one of the most heavily populated corridors without rail service in the Midwest.
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By Matt Leingang, Forbes.com, >>> continue reading
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