(The following story by Ted Jackovics appeared on The Tampa Tribune website on September 7, 2010.)
TAMPA, Fla. — Amtrak ridership continued to increase in June, including on the Silver Star that serves Tampa on its daily New York-Miami run, a company report shows.
The Silver Star carried 34,435 passengers in June, up 4.7 percent from a year ago. One-third of the train’s passengers customarily board or leave in Tampa, Amtrak has said.
The train improved its on-time performance from 41.7 percent of on-time tips in June 2009 to 70 percent on-time in June 2010.
Ridership on the Silver Star the first nine months of fiscal 2010 is up 7.1 percent to 293,463 passengers compared with the same period a year ago.
Nationwide, Amtrak ridership rose 9 percent in June to 2.57 million trips.
Amtrak said higher gasoline prices, increased consumer spending, better on-time performance and effective spring advertising campaigns contributed to the overall system gains.