(The following article was posted on AccessNorthGa.com on November 7.)
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — Despite service disruptions caused by Katrina and other hurricanes, ridership on the Amtrak Crescent, which serves Gainesville twice-a-day, increased more than two percent during the last fiscal year.
Amtrak trains carried a total of 25,374,998 passengers during fiscal 2005, which ended Sept. 30. Amtrak’s New York-New Orleans Crescent, which serves Toccoa, Gainesville and Atlanta reflected the trend. The Crescent carried 263,080 riders (about 360 passengers per train), up 2.5% from fiscal 2004.
The picture was not, however, quite as positive in eastern Georgia, and the reason is clear: patronage on Amtrak’s east coast trains, which serve Savannah and Jesup, suffered as a result of Amtrak’s decision one year ago to cut the New York-Miami Palmetto back to a New York-Savannah run. Palmetto ridership plunged 41.9% this year, to 134,669. Amtrak’s remaining New York-Miami runs, the Silver Meteor and the Silver Star, picked up much, but not all of the slack, recording respective ridership gains of 35.6% and 0.6%.
The bottom line result was a net combined loss of about 20,000 riders on Amtrak’s east coast trains — about 2.6% of the 2004 total. Despite that slight downturn, the east coast route remains popular: the Silver Meteor, the Silver Palm and the trimmed-back Palmetto carried a total of 718,835 riders in fiscal 2005.