(The Peoria Journal-Star posted the following article on its website on September 24.)
CHICAGO — Amtrak officials announced Tuesday that ridership on the three state-supported rail lines increased by double digits in August and that numbers are also up strongly for this fiscal year.
According to numbers released by the rail line on Tuesday, a total of 806,738 passengers rode Amtrak statewide during the 11 months of this fiscal year. That is up about 7 percent from the same time period last year.
Amtrak currently runs the Chicago to St. Louis State House line, the Chicago to Carbondale Illini line and the Chicago to Quincy Illinois Zephyr line as part of a contract with the Illinois Department of Transportation.
IDOT also supports a fourth line, the Chicago to Milwaukee Hiawatha Service, in a partnership between Illinois, Amtrak and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.
In western Illinois, ridership on the Illinois Zephyr was up 22 percent in August, with 10,177 people taking the train that also services area cities like Princeton, Kewanee, Galesburg and Macomb.
That line has also shown increases of about 10 percent for the 11 months of the fiscal year that have already passed.
The State House line, which serves area communities like Bloomington-Normal and Lincoln, showed an increase of 34 percent in August when compared to last year’s numbers. About 26,500 people took that line in August and ridership for the fiscal year is already up by about 12 percent over last year.
The Illini line was up by 24 percent in August over last year, with 9,759 passengers and the line is showing an 11 percent increase for the year so far.
Don Saunders, General Superintendent of Amtrak’s Central Division said Tuesday that the company is working cooperatively with rail lines such as the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe and the Union Pacific lines in Illinois to keep Amtrak trains on-time.
“The success of the state’s passenger rail program is measured by ridership and reliability,” said George Weber, Passenger Rail Section Chief at the Illinois DOT. “These impressive ridership increases indicate Amtrak is growing as a popular travel alternative for thousands of people in Illinois.”