Tracking FY 2024-25 Ridership and Finances

[Septa9739]

Cannonball's a good name for the Norfolk NER: straight alignment, express to Petersburg, and there's a cannonball in the wall of St. Paul's Church in Norfolk. Lord Dunmore shot it from a British ship on the first day of 1776. But as Miles in Transit says, "bring back flag stops!"

Thank you for the validation. I started calling it that as a mistake, and stopped on the forum to avoid confusion. But I left it in my private notes, because I liked it.

 

[Septa9739]

Thanks for posting this stuff -- definitely interesting! Wish there was a way to adjust, extract or combine to get a clearer Hiawatha picture. It has not 100% versus 2019 but now that about 15% of CHI-MKE-CHI trips (14 of 96 weekly) are under Borealis there's no solid way to know how close CHI-MKE-CHI is to full recovery.

If I had to guess, maybe a third (optimistically) is CHI-MKE, which would make 7,000ish, leaving the corridor still about 20,000 off.

 

[railiner]

Cannonball's a good name for the Norfolk NER: straight alignment, express to Petersburg, and there's a cannonball in the wall of St. Paul's Church in Norfolk. Lord Dunmore shot it from a British ship on the first day of 1776. But as Miles in Transit says, "bring back flag stops!"

I suppose because the Petersburg to Norfolk segment runs over the former N&W, and N&W did operate a Cannonball it inherited from its 1964 merger with the Wabash (between St. Louis and Detroit) until Amtrak start day; is another validation of that name…

 

[thefirewarde]

The Carolinian is up massively - surely with ridership *that* strong there's more impetus to get the new Charlotte overnight facilities active and run a longer consist, possibly also to expand from a six car Airo to an eight car.

 

[Septa9739]

The Carolinian is up massively - surely with ridership *that* strong there's more impetus to get the new Charlotte overnight facilities active and run a longer consist, possibly also to expand from a six car Airo to an eight car.

I should have noted that in the data. The 221% number is an anomaly. There must have been some issue with the route in August 2019. In a broader context, the route is running around its 2012 levels, so these numbers aren’t totally unprecedented. On the other hand, the train has been pulling close to 500 passengers per frequency for months. To me that justifies an eight car set, if not a second frequency, especially with the Floridian coming.

 

[thefirewarde]

If there was a spot to park it overnight I think they would be running longer consists. As is they sometimes cut the baggage car for another coach.

 

[Septa9739]

The September (year end) report came out today. For now I will just post a snippet of my annual ridership table with some basic notes. Record means an all time record with the number of years since. I will offer commentary at a later time.

	2019	2023	2024
Acela	3,577,500	2,959,400	3,238,100	Best in 5
Regional	8,940,000	9,162,400	10,800,000	Record (First time over 10,000,000)
Extras	7,400	0	0
NEC Service Line	12,525,600	12,121,800	14,038,100
Ethan Allen	50,500	86,600	89,000	Record 1 year
Vermonter	99,300	101,900	109,100	Record 1 year
Empire West	389,800	452,700	506,600	Record 1 year (First time over 500,000)
Downeaster	557,200	539,900	591,100	Record 11 year
Berkshire Flyer	0	1,200	800
Springfield Shuttle	362,400	439000	577,200	Record 1 year (First time over 500,000)
Keystone	1,576,000	1,106,300	1,284,000	Still off
Empire South	1,214,200	1,245,600	1,358,600	Record 1 year
Great River Service	0		88,400	Record 0 years
Lincoln Service	627,600	523,600	586,200	Best in 5
Hiawatha	882,200	635,000	665,300	Best in 5
Wolverines	501,100	420,600	425,800	Best in 5
Illini/Saluki	267,000	270,000	296,600	Best in 10
Illinois Service	192,600	114,500	141,700	Better than last year
Heartland Flyer	68,700	72,400	80,400	Best in 11
Pacific Surfliner	2,779,200	1,516,700	1,983,000	Best in 5 (Despite Rockslides)
Cascades	828,200	668,400	938,400	Record 12 years
Capitol Corridor	1,777,100	905,400	1,032,600	HELP ME
San Joquin	1,071,200	846,900	908,900	Best in 5 (Still not great)
Adirondack	117,500	24,700	69,900	Mess (still best in 5)
Blue Water	181,800	168,800	174,900	Best in 5
Roanoke Regional	220,900	324,600	334,500	Record 1 year
Newport News	335,200	355,700	373,100	Best since 2014
Norfolk Regional	239,900	479,500	507,800	Record 1 year (First time over 500,000)
Richmond Regional	128,700	153,200	148,800	Best since 2018
Hoosier State	20,900	0	0
Missouri River Runner	154,400	153,200	187,800	Best in 11
Pennsylvanian	215,100	192,700	233,900	Best I have
Gulf Coast Limited	0	0
Pere Marquette	97,600	85,800	94,400	Best in 5
Carolinian	244,800	315,800	347,400	Best I have
Piedmont	214,200	290,000	360,700	Record 1 year
Extras	25,400	100	0
State Supported	15,440,700		14,496,900
Silver Star	390,000	351,700	388,100	2019 level
Cardinal	108,900	82,700	93,000	Best in 5
Silver Meteor	353,500	283,900	298,300	Best in 5
Empire Builder	433,400	349,000	388,000	Best in 5
Capitol Limited	209,600	126,300	163,100	Best in 2
California Zephyr	410,800	328,700	351,200	Best in 5
Southwest Chief	338,200	253,800	261,500	Best in 5
City of New Orleans	235,700	253,900	241,800	Slid
Texas Eagle	321,700	294,400	325,700	Best in 6
Sunset Limited	92,800	77,300	76,900	Slid
Coast Starlight	426,000	337,400	358,500	Best in 5
Lakeshore Limited	357,700	351,000	398,400	Best in 12 (5,400) short of all time
Palmetto	345,300	318,000	357,200	Best in 6
Crescent	295,200	270,000	303,100	Best in 11
Auto Train	236,000	283,600	266,600	Slid
All Long Distance	4,554,800	3,961,700	4,271,400

Every Route that set a record last year set one again (except the Auto Train). Additionally, the Cascades and Carolinian toppled long time records, as might have the Pennsylvanian. The NEC numbers are remarkable. State supported is spotty. Long distance is ugly (2019 wasn’t a great year and most routes fall short. The Lakeshore and Crescent are two notable bright spots, posting 10+ year highs.

 

[west point]

LD trains only averaged 774 less riders per day for FY 2024.That would be ~~~ 15 more coaches for 50 riders on all LD trains. Just a little less than 1 extra coach sold on each LD train. Add just one more sleeper with 25 riders then only 1/2 - 2/3 of 1 extra coach needed

 

[Septa9739]

Rank		2012		2024	Change
1	NER	8,014,175	NER	10,800,000	None
2	Acela	3,395,354	Acela	3,238,100	None
3	PacSurf	2,640,342	PACSURF	1,983,000	None
4	Capitol Corridor	1,746,397	Empire South	1,358,600	3
5	Keystone	1,420,392	Keystone	1,284,000	None
6	San Joaquin	1,144,616	Capitol Corridor	1,032,600	-2
7	Empire South	1,062,715	Cascades	938,400	1
8	Cascades	845,099	San Joaquin	908,900	-2
9	Hiawatha	838,355	Hiawatha	665,300	None
10	Newport Regional	623,864	Downeaster	591,100	3
11	Lincoln Service	597,519	Lincoln Service	586,200	None
12	Empire Builder	543,072	Springfield Shuttle	577,200	7
13	Downeaster	541,757	Norfolk Regional	507,800	Did not exist
14	Wolverines	484,138	Empire West	506,600	3
15	Coast Starlight	454,443	Wolverine	425,800	-1
16	Silver Star	425,794	LSL	398,400	2
17	Empire West	407,729	Silver Star	388,100	-1
18	Lakeshore Limited	403,700	Empire Builder	388,000	-6
19	Springfield Shuttle	384,834	Newport Regional	373,100	-7
20	California Zephyr	376,459	Piedmont	360,700	16
21	Silver Meteor	375,164	Coast Starlight	358,500	-6
22	Southwest Chief	355,316	Palmetto	357,200	10
23	Texas Eagle	337,973	California Zephyr	351,200	-3
24	Illini/Saluki	325,255	Carolinian	347,400	1
25	Carolinian	306,419	Roanoke	334,500	10
26	Crescent	304,266	Texas Eagle	325,600	-3
27	Auto Train	264,096	Crescent	303,100	-1
28	City of New Orleans	253,170	Silver Meteor	298,300	-7
29	Illinois Service	232,592	Illini/Saluki	296,600	-5
30	Capitol Limited	226,884	Auto Train	266,200	-3
31	Pennsylvanian	212,006	SWC	261,500	-9
32	Palmetto	198,260	City of New Orleans	241,800	-4
33	MO River Runner	195,885	Pennsylvanian	233,900	-2
34	Blue Water	189,193	MO River Runner	187,800	-1
35	Lynchburger	184,907	Capitol Limited	163,100	-5
36	Piedmont	162,657	Blue Water	174,900	-2
37	Adirondack	131,869	Richmond Regional	148,800	Did Not Exist
38	Cardinal	116,373	IL Zephyr	141,700	-9
39	Pere Marquette	109,321	Vermonter	109,100	3
40	Sunset Limited	101,217	Pere Marquette	94,400	-1
41	Heartland Flyer	87,873	Cardinal	93,000	-3
42	Vermonter	82,086	Ethan Allen	89,000	1
43	Ethan Allen	54,376	Borealis	88,400	Did not exist
44	Hoosier State	36,669	Heartland Flyer	80,400	-3
45			Sunset Limited	76,900	-5
46			Adirondack	69,900	-9
47			Berkshire Flyer	800	Did not exist

This is another chart I made with the new data. I listed each route by ridership rank in 2012, then again in 2024. I think it’s a good thing to look at because it puts the last 12 years in prospective. There’s been tremendous growth in some areas. The Lynchburg Regional was a novel experiment by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The 13th busiest route in the country didn’t exist yet. It was the Boardman years and his vision to improve long distance was still held in great hope. The Northeast Corridor was about 3/4 as busy as it is today. Gas was pathetically expensive (even by today’s standards). The Hoosier State was giving its dying breath. Maybe others see somethings in the data I am not.