(The following story by Tom Kacich appeared on the News-Gazette website on August 15, 2010.)
CHICAGO — Ridership on the three Amtrak trains that serve Champaign-Urbana is up 3 percent over the last 10 months, although it is up 11 percent on the corridor through Bloomington-Normal.
Nationwide, Amtrak ridership is up more than 5 percent since October 2009.
There were 251,971 riders on the three daily trains through Champaign-Urbana during the period, up from 243,561 during the same time last year, according to Marc Magliari, media relations manager for Amtrak.
The most vital of the three trains is the City of New Orleans, according to Amtrak statistics. Its ridership was up 16.2 percent compared to a year ago, while the two state-supported trains – the Illini and the Saluki – reported a minor ridership decline.
“The City of New Orleans departure from Carbondale is pretty early in the morning (3:16 a.m.) but its departure form Champaign (6:10 a.m.) is a pretty good way to get to Chicago in the morning. That’s an important train on that part of the route,” Magliari said.
Amtrak ridership on the corridor through Bloomington-Normal and Springfield is stronger because of better service, Magliari said.
“Number one, you have five trains each way to work with between Chicago and St. Louis. You have more opportunities to carry more seats more often,” he said. “And we’ve been able to increase the capacity on a couple of the Lincoln service (state-supported) trains because the demand has been so strong.
“We’ve added capacity there, too, that has made the trains longer. We’ve added cars to some of those trains because through the stimulus program, we had some cars that were taken out of the shop and became useable. Some of them were assigned to Chicago and to that train.”
Magliari asserted that “it’s not really comparable to say that you’re underperforming St. Louis when St. Louis has more frequency and so much more capacity.”
Revenue on the trains through the Champaign-Urbana corridor is up substantially so far this year – 14 percent on the City of New Orleans and 6.5 percent on the Illini and Saluki trains, according to Amtrak statistics.
Fares increased “2 to 3 percent” during the period, Magliari said.
“Some of it might be people who were opting for business class,” he explained. “Business class has become a strong seller for us on a lot of our corridors. People are paying a surcharge to be in business class.”
Business class is an extra $16 each way on the Champaign-Chicago route. The business class service includes reserved seats with more legroom, an electrical outlet for each seat and a newspaper and non-alcoholic beverage.
Another reason for the increased revenue may be that many passengers are so-called late deciders.
“To get the lowest fare you ordinarily have to buy further in advance. We could have more late deciders who are paying the higher fare because they are late deciders,” he said. “Late deciders ordinarily pay more than early deciders.”
For example, an adult ticket purchased Thursday for a Champaign to Chicago trip on Friday cost $38 one way. But a ticket ordered a week in advance for the same trip could cost as little as $14.
Amtrak also reports that its best on-time performance on the corridor through Champaign-Urbana over the last 12 months is on the southbound City of New Orleans. It was on time 87.6 percent of the time (defined on that route as within 30 minutes of its scheduled time). The northbound City of New Orleans was on time 83.3 percent of the time.
The southbound Illini was on time 85.4 percent of the time (defined on that route as within 10 minutes of its schedule). The northbound Illini was on time 61.8 percent of the time.