(The following story by Mike Elswick appeared on the News-Journal website on March 17, 2009.)
LONGVIEW, Texas — Victoria Emmel of Longview said she prefers taking the train to driving or flying when possible.
“I like to be able to get up and walk around and sit in the lounge car with the big windows and watch the scenery,” said Emmel, who returned Monday from a trip on Amtrak’s Texas Eagle route from Chicago.
She had been to Jackson, Mich., to visit family. Emmel said she was glad Amtrak was able to get her most of the way there.
“The service is good, the train is clean, and it’s been running on time,” Emmel said.
That on-time factor has been one of the national passenger rail’s biggest detriments in years past and has been one of the largest sources of complaints, officials said. Griff Hubbard, executive director of the East Texas Corridor Council, said a past gripe of passengers was getting sidetracked.
“There’s been a dramatic improvement in on-time performance since the October passage of the Rail Passenger Act,” Hubbard said. Among the aspects of that act signed by former President George W. Bush is better cooperation between the freight railroads, which own most of the rails.
“That act addressed the on-time performance concerns of passenger rail,” Hubbard said. “The Texas Eagle has been running about 80 to 85 percent on time.”
Passenger use was on the increase even before the improvement of on-time performance, Hubbard said. Record high prices for gasoline in the summer of 2008 helped spur those numbers.
“The Texas Eagle in fiscal year 2008 saw a 15.5 percent increase in ridership and an 18.2 percent increase in revenues,” Hubbard said. The Texas Eagle route runs between Chicago and San Antonio, and provides connecting service to Los Angeles from San Antonio.
Between October and the end of February, Texas Eagle passenger numbers are up another 15.1 percent from the previous year, Hubbard said. Revenues on the route are up about 16.1 percent compared to the first five months of fiscal year 2008, he said.
The Texas Eagle also connects in Fort Worth with the Heartland Flyer providing service to Oklahoma City. For fiscal year 2008, the passenger count on that route was up by more than 18 percent with 80,892 people riding for the 12 months ending Sept. 30.
All Amtrak trains across the system saw increases in ridership in the service’s fiscal year ending Sept. 30. The 28.7 million passenger total, topped the 25,847,531 for the previous 12 months by 11.1 percent, Amtrak reported in a prepared statement.
Total ticket revenue for the fiscal year reached $1.7 billion, a 14.2 percent increase over the $1.5 billion in the previous year, according to Alex Kummant, president and CEO of Amtrak. He attributed the increases to several factors.
“Highway and airway congestion, volatile fuel prices and increasing environmental awareness all contributed to Amtrak’s successful year, as did our continually improving service and on-time performance,” Kummant said.
Amtrak has posted six consecutive years of growth in ridership and revenue, he said. Amtrak provides intercity passenger rail service to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 21,000-mile route system.
Texas Eagle by the numbers
1 – The ranking by number of passengers of the Chicago to San Antonio route of all Amtrak long distance routes in fiscal year 2008;
2 – The ranking in revenue for fiscal 2008 for all Amtrak long distance routes;
15.2 – The percent increase in ridership between fiscal year 2007 and 2008;
18.8 – The percent increase in revenue between fiscal year 2007 and 2008;
76 – the average daily number of passengers on or off trains in Longview during fiscal year 2008;
21 – The average daily number of passengers getting on or off trains in Marshall in fiscal year 2008;
19 – The average daily number of passengers getting on or off trains in Texarkana is fiscal year 2008;
12 – The average daily number of passengers getting on or off trains in Mineola in fiscal year 2008.