(The following story by Ted Jackovics appeared on The Tampa Tribune website on January 12.)
TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa leads Amtrak’s passenger growth in Florida, with a 33.5 percent gain in ridership to 100,119 passengers from fiscal 2007-08.
That’s more than double the 14.6 percent gain in Florida ridership to 963,092 and triple the 11 percent nationwide gain to 28.7 million passengers from October 2007 through September 2008.
Tampa ranks third in Florida ridership, behind Sanford, which serves the AutoTrain that carries passengers and their vehicles to and from the Washington, D.C., area, and Orlando.
Last week, Amtrak advertised one-way fares from Tampa of $8 to Orlando, $27 to Fort Lauderdale and $94 to New York. Higher gasoline prices have pushed more travelers toward Amtrak in recent months.
With President-elect Barack Obama a longtime Amtrak supporter and expectations Congress will focus on transportation in the nation’s economic stimulus plan, the outlook for the federally supported railroad may be the rosiest since its inception in 1971.
“We urge you to allocate at least $20 billion of total stimulus spending to projects that will improve and expand passenger train service throughout the country,” National Association of Railroad Passengers Chairman George Chilson and president and chief executive Ross Capon wrote in a Dec. 31 letter to the Obama transition team.
“The current dip in oil prices … does not eliminate the need to prepare America for the time when oil once again becomes scarce and expensive.”
In a recent interview with The Tampa Tribune, Capon said restoration of service on the Sunset Limited from Orlando through the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans and Los Angeles should be a top priority, as well as resurrecting Amtrak’s longstanding plans to expand Florida service elsewhere.
Amtrak’s exposure is bound to increase Saturday, when Obama is scheduled to ride a special train on Amtrak tracks from Philadelphia to Washington, with “whistle stops” in Baltimore and Wilmington, Del., where Vice President-elect Joe Biden will board the train.