(The following story by Kathryn Prater appeared on the Lansing State Journal website on August 12.)
LANSING, Mich. — As gas prices linger around $4, more travelers are avoiding cars and opting for alternate forms of transportation.
Amtrak train ridership from October 2007 through July 2008 on the Blue Water route – a line from Port Huron to Chicago that includes a stop at the East Lansing station – jumped 6.5 percent over that same period the previous year, spokesman Marc Magliari said. The total number of passengers was 112,426.
Nationally, ridership grew 11.3 percent, totaling 23.7 million riders.
The high cost of gas is the “largest single reason” for the climbing numbers, Magliari said.
That rang true for Brad Davis and his roommate Michael Zigila, who sat at East Lansing’s Amtrak station Monday, waiting to catch a Greyhound bus that would take them to the Battle Creek station. From there, they planned to board an Amtrak train bound for their hometown of Chicago.
“Specifically, I took this route because of the gas,” said Davis, 41. “Round-trip – 50 bucks. You can’t beat that.”
Davis, who was visiting family in Michigan with Zigila, estimated the trip would have cost more than $200 if they had rented a car and driven.
Magliari said the distance from East Lansing to Chicago via Amtrak is 208 miles. At $3.88 per gallon – AAA Michigan’s average gas price for the Lansing area as of Monday – it would cost a traveler with a vehicle that gets 25 miles per gallon a little more than $64 round-trip to drive.
Fares from East Lansing to Chicago range from $22 to $56 each way, Magliari said. Tickets from East Lansing to Port Huron cost $9 to $23.
Ridership on Greyhound buses increased as well.
Abby Wambaugh, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based nationwide bus service, said it had 1,284 Lansing passengers in July, up 8.35 percent from the previous year.
“The average ticket price is $53 one way, which in a lot of cases is cheaper than filling up your tank with gas,” she said.
Almost 60 percent of Greyhound passengers travel less than 450 miles, she said.
Caleb Scribner waited Monday at East Lansing’s Amtrak station for a Greyhound bus that would take him to Harrison, Maine. He and his sister, Jessie Mason, are moving to Williamston from there.
“I was going to drive my car, but gas prices are so high that I’m just going to take the bus instead,” said Scribner, 25, who plans to drive a truckload of belongings from Maine to Michigan.
Owosso-based Indian Trails Inc., which stops at bus stations in East Lansing and Lansing, has seen bus ridership grow more than 10 percent so far this year, said Vice President Chad Cushman. He declined to disclose exact figures.
“We’re all confident that fuel increases have played a part in our ridership increases,” he said.
Most Indian Trails buses operate within Michigan, but some go to Chicago and through the Upper Peninsula to Milwaukee, Cushman said.
Fares range from $25 to $35, he said.