DENVER (AP) — A company that wanted to keep train service going between Denver and the Winter Park ski area said it is giving up for now.

Iowa Pacific Holdings LLC on Monday said it won’t be able to operate the ski train this season after failing to resolve differences with Amtrak. The company was negotiating to use Amtrak crews. Read the full story

BOSTON—Amtrak had record-breaking ridership on Thanksgiving week, including strong showings on some New England routes.

Amtrak announced Tuesday that it had 685,876 passengers over the holiday travel week, beating the old record of 666,716 set in 2007. 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