(The following story by Ken Stanford appeared at AccessNorthGa.com on January 7.)
GAINESVILLE, Ga. — More than 100,000 people passed through the Atlanta Amtrak station last year, the first time that’s happened in recent memory.
The total was 101,084 – a three percent increase over fiscal 2007.
Atlanta wasn’t alone: passenger counts were up at every Amtrak station in Georgia, including Gainesville’s.
According to the Georgia Association of Railroad Passengers (GARP), Savannah passed the 50,000 mark with 54,168 passengers, an eleven percent increase over 2007. Jesup also posted an 11 percent increase, with 8,784 passengers. Gainesville ridership was up five percent, to 5,541, and Toccoa was up 13 percent, to 3,278.
The Georgia numbers reflect a national trend: Amtrak carried a record 28,716,359 passengers nationwide last year, a 9.2% increase over 2007 All four Amtrak trains serving Georgia shared in the gains. The top performer of the quartet was the Silver Star, on the New York-Savannah-Miami route. It carried 367,139 passengers in fiscal 2008, up 11 percent from 2007. Running on that same route, the Silver Meteor carried 319,773 passengers, a nine percent increase. The Palmetto, which runs only between New York and Savannah, carried 173,949 passengers, up ten percent from fiscal 2007. Amtrak’s New York-Atlanta-New Orleans Crescent – the train that passes through Gainesville, Toccoa and Atlanta twice a day – carried 291,222 passengers, up 11 percent from 2007.