NEW YORK — Amtrak’s high-speed Acela Express train service has seen a 35 percent jump in traffic, due largely to setbacks in airline shuttle service in the Northeast since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition on Friday.
Some early-morning and late-afternoon departures from Boston, New York and Washington are selling out on the Acela Express, the first high-speed train in the United States, Amtrak said, according to the report.
The newspaper said that Amtrak recently added four round trips between Washington and Boston as trains arrived from the manufacturer.
Amtrak spokesman William Schulz said Acela Express ridership had been running about 20 percent higher than the trains it replaced, according to the report.
Schulz said that since the disruption of airline shuttle service following the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, passenger growth has climbed to 35 percent from year-ago levels, according to the newspaper.
The report noted that other parts of Amtrak’s national network are seeing more modest growth. Amtrak’s systemwide passenger levels are up 15 percent to 17 percent from year-earlier levels, it said.
The newspaper also said that tighter security and longer delays at airports have made Acela Express more competitive.
According to the report, some transportation executives warn that Acela Express’s growth could end as the airline shuttles return to full operation and airport security procedures become more efficient.
Amtrak has asked the federal government for $3.2 billion in additional funding to boost train capacity, improve tunnels and tighten security, the report said. Tightened security could lengthen passenger ticketing and clearance times at train stations, it noted.
Congress quickly approved a $15 billion bailout for the airline industry in the wake of the attacks that brought airline service to a halt for two days and kept Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport — a mainstay of Northeastern shuttle flights — closed until Oct. 4.
Six days after the attacks, Amtrak said its average number of riders had climbed to 80,000 people from 60,000 people a day.
“Ridership has skyrocketed. We had standing room only on some of our trains last week,” Karina VanVeen, a spokeswoman for the national passenger railroad, said on Sept. 17.