(The following article by Dan McLean was posted on the Burlington Free Press website on June 19.)
BURLINGTON, Vt. — Amtrak’s presence in Vermont is limited: just two trains leave the state each day — one from St. Albans and one from Rutland. But after years of declining passenger numbers, the combined Vermont ridership is on pace to log consecutive years of 14 to 15 percent increases.
Ridership numbers are up on both the “Ethan Allen Express,” which travels from Rutland to New York City, and the “Vermonter,” which embarks on a 13-hour daily sojourn from St. Albans to Washington, D.C.
The increase didn’t surprise the state’s Agency of Transportation.
“It’s something that we’ve been working on, improving the service in Vermont,” agency spokesman John Zicconi said.
Despite the rebound, annual ridership on the two Vermont lines remains well below the levels maintained in the late 1990s, when more than 90,000 people got on or off trains in Vermont. The number of Vermont riders fell each year from 93,394 in fiscal year 2000 to 55,171 five years later — a 41 percent drop.
Train riders began to abandon Vermont rail travel for a variety of reasons, said Zicconi: People traveled less in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks; the arrival of low-cost airlines such as Jet Blue and Independence Air to Burlington International Airport offered “more opportunity for people to start flying instead of taking the train;” and the cancellation of Amtrak’s bus service from St. Albans to Montreal, which was included in Amtrak ridership figures.
“Those three things, if you put them all together, that would have accounted for a decent portion of that dip,” Zicconi said.
On the rebound
Now, train riders have begun to return.
On the two routes combined, 13.9 percent more passengers got on or off trains in Vermont from fiscal year 2005 to 2006, according to Amtrak, which measures a year of travel from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
This year, through April, the number of riders had increased by 14.8 percent, compared to the same period last year.
The number of Vermont rail riders, though, is still relatively small. More than 10 times the number of people boarded a plane at Burlington International Airport last year — 690,568 passengers — than the 62,583 who got on or off a train in Vermont during Amtrak’s last fiscal year.
The Washington, D.C.-based National Association of Railroad Passengers thinks travelers are frustrated by a jammed aviation system and traffic-filled highways. Gasoline prices near or above $3 a gallon are also pushing people back to train travel, said David Johnson, the group’s assistant director.
“I think people are just getting fed up with the highway and aviation system gridlock,” Johnson said.
Recently, Vermont’s trains have become a popular option at the holidays. Thanksgiving travelers filled the “Vermonter” for several days in late November.
During a brief stop at Essex Junction on Nov. 21, train conductor Mike Kujala said the locomotive was fully booked, adding, “This has been our best year ever.”
A promotional program, sponsored by Amtrak and Vermont’s Transportation and Tourism departments to encourage skiers to take the train to Vermont is partially responsible for increased ridership, Amtrak spokesman Cliff Cole said. Each department put up $25,000 and Amtrak offered $25,000 in train tickets, he said.
Vermont’s rail future
Vermont will subsidize Amtrak with $4.1 million in fiscal year 2008, Zicconi said, but that investment is about to balloon as Vermont is set to pilot a project that could fundamentally change rail travel in the Green Mountain State.
The project requires $17.5 million in state funds to purchase three engines and two carriages that would be used to add another leg of service from White River Junction to New Haven, Conn., Zicconi said.
The Legislature has approved the funds, he said. Once the state treasurer and attorney general sign off, the order will be placed. Amtrak has provided a $2 million grant to encourage the project.
“Amtrak wants the cars to run on our line because we would put them through all the various weather conditions that any state in the union could put them through,” Zicconi said. “If the cars can run effectively in Vermont, they can run anywhere.”
The smaller cars, which hold 60 passengers each, are a better fit for Vermont.
“Right now, we pull a lot of empty chairs,” he said, noting the “Vermonter” has about 350 seats, most which sit empty through Vermont.
The cars will take almost a year and a half to build and should arrive in Vermont by 2008. After three years, if the trains aren’t embraced, the manufacturer will buy them back.
The added service is expected to substantially increase ridership, primarily as a result of the second trip from White River Junction to New Haven.
It’s possible that additional train service could come to Burlington in the future, creating a more direct route to New York City via Rutland and Albany, N.Y.
Existing track is currently used by freight trains, Zicconi said. The track, known as the “western corridor” needs substantial upgrades. There are “significant stretches” along the route where train traffic cannot exceed 10 mph.
“Right now, Amtrak would never agree to run service from Burlington to Rutland because the service would be too slow… but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done,” Zicconi said.