(The following story by Al Kemp appeared on The News Journal website on October 14.)
WILMINGTON, Del. — While national Amtrak ridership rose to a record in fiscal 2008, Wilmington’s passenger traffic is in a decline.
Nationally, ridership rose to a record 28,716,407 passengers in fiscal 2008, Amtrak officials announced Monday. It was the sixth straight year of gains for the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
However, at the Wilmington Amtrak Station on Front Street, passenger traffic has been on the decline for three years, partly because of competition from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority.
While national ridership is tracked and reported on a fiscal year that ends in September, individual cities on the 21,000-mile route system are tracked by calendar year, said Amtrak spokeswoman Karina Romero.
Statistics from the three previous calendar years show a steady decline in traffic at Wilmington from 778,725 passengers in 2005 to 704,387 passengers in 2007.
“We think a number of commuters who use multi-ride tickets are moving over to SEPTA,” Romero said.
There also are travelers such as Ed O’Toole, who was waiting in Wilmington on Monday to catch a train back to his home in New Orleans.
O’Toole said he sometimes rides Amtrak as far north as Newark, then catches a SEPTA train into Philadelphia.
“It’s a money saver for me when I can swing it, but sometimes it doesn’t work out,” he said.
Amtrak collected ticket revenue of $1.7 billion in fiscal 2008, compared to $1.5 billion in fiscal 2007.
“Highway and airway congestion, volatile fuel prices, increasing environmental awareness all contributed to Amtrak’s successful year, as did our continually improving service and on-time performance,” Amtrak President and CEO Alex Kummant said in a press release.
Romero said the passenger decline in Wilmington appears to run counter to the national increase, but he couldn’t comment further because 2008 numbers aren’t available.
“We’re just seeing some incredible numbers nationally, and it’s partly because of the price of gas,” she said.
Romero said the Northeast Regional Corridor, which runs from Washington to Boston, accounted for $7.5 billion in fiscal 2008, an increase of 9.5 percent from fiscal 2007.
Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., is chairman of the House Passenger Rail Caucus and led the effort to invest in high-speed rail and reform Amtrak management. He welcomed the news of Amtrak’s record year.
“Passenger rail service is indispensible for Delawareans facing skyrocketing gas prices, congested roadways and overcrowded airports,” Castle said in a statement.
More than half the revenues in the Northeast Regional Corridor were generated by the high-speed Acela Express, which accounted for $3.4 billion in fiscal 2008.
Shane Hollis of Wilmington can’t imagine life without the Acela.
He takes the trains to Washington, D.C., about twice a week for business.
“You wouldn’t catch me driving down there,” he said. “I don’t know why more people don’t travel by rail. Maybe they would if there was a good rail system here like in Europe.”