(The following story by Ted Benson appeared on The Modesto Bee website on August 25.)
MODESTO, Calif. — Soaring gas prices and summer vacations have pushed Amtrak ridership to a record high in the San Joaquin Valley and across the country.
For the first time, more than 100,000 passengers rode on the San Joaquins route in a single month in July. Nationwide, a record 2.75 million people took the train last month.
That means more company for regular riders such as Steve Clapak, who works in Modesto and likes to sleep while he rolls to his Los Angeles home, a trip he’s been making for nearly 10 years. He gave up train rides a couple of years ago when SkyWest Airlines began offering regular direct flights. But that service ended in June, so Clapak’s back on the train.
“Three or four years ago, (the train) was almost empty,” said Clapak, boarding a southbound train Thursday at Modesto’s Amtrak station. “Now it’s very crowded.”
Tom Thurman of Tulare said he recently was forced to sit in the cafe car because he couldn’t find another seat.
“There is no question the trains are a lot fuller,” Thurman said.
Among the newcomers: Kristen Smith, who usually drives her Jaguar from her home in Corona to visit her daughter in Fresno.
But Smith said the $44 train ticket looked a lot more attractive than paying $120 to gas up her sports car.
“I have to say that’s what did it for me,” Smith said.
Ridership on the San Joaquins line — which runs through Bakersfield, Modesto and Sacramento and connects to Oakland — was 32 percent higher last month than during July 2007.
That came on the heels of a 34 percent increase for June, Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said.
She said many routes nationwide are experiencing double-digit percentage increases.
Nationally, Amtrak has seen an increase in passengers over the past five to six years, Graham said. Amtrak provides train transportation to more than 500 destinations across the United States. In its 37 years of up-and-down sales, never before has the company seen more passengers in a single month than in July.
For the period from October through July, ridership on the San Joaquins has risen to 777,514 passengers, 17.2 percent more than during the same period 12 months earlier, Graham said.
She said she thinks congestion on the highways and in airports may have something to do with the increase.
Graham said the busy summer season typically begins around Memorial Day and continues until Labor Day weekend. But there’s no telling whether this year’s numbers will slow down, she said, meaning Amtrak may need to add more cars to some trains.
For now, she said, passengers on the San Joaquins route should not have to worry about not finding a seat as long as they have a reservation. And crowds shouldn’t cause trains to be late, she said.
“The train leaves whether or not there are people on the train,” Graham said.
For some, trains aren’t just about saving money. Harry and Jean Thut of Escalon took a quick trip to Fresno on Thursday with their grandsons, Samuel and Redmond Tucker, 6 and 9, just because the boys had never ridden the rails.
“If we like it,” Jean Thut said, “we’ll take a train trip later, just the two of us.”