Benefit Partner News: Amtrak Posts Best Ever Thanksgiving

WASHINGTON – It is official. With 724,051 passengers, more people chose Amtrak, a Veterans Advantage Partner, this Thanksgiving holiday than ever before. In addition, travel on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving was the railroad’s single busiest day ever with 138,736 passengers and the Sunday after Thanksgiving was close behind with 130,093 riders.

“As America’s Railroad, we value connecting families and friends, especially during the holidays,” said Amtrak President and CEO Joseph Boardman. “Strong ridership increases over the holiday were seen on routes across the country as passengers chose Amtrak to provide convenient and affordable travel.”

Comparing Thanksgiving 2011 to Thanksgiving 2010, total Amtrak ridership was up 2.8 percent. In addition, all three Amtrak business lines saw ridership increases, including on the Northeast Corridor which rose by 3.6 percent, state-supported trains and other short distance corridors grew 2.6 percent and long-distance trains were up 1.8 percent.

The previous Thanksgiving record was set in 2010 with 704,446 passengers. The 2011 Thanksgiving travel holiday week extended from Nov. 22 through Nov. 28.

East Highlights
Ridership on the Northeast Corridor continued its upward trend, with the Northeast Regional service up 4.7 percent and the high-speed Acela Express experiencing a slight 0.5 percent increase over the Thanksgiving travel week last year. Gains also were realized on Amtrak’s state-supported routes, including Keystone Service (New York – Philadelphia - Harrisburg) up 6.2 percent, Downeaster (Portland, Maine – Boston) up 6 percent, Ethan Allen (Rutland, Vt. – New York) up 3.5 percent and Adirondack (New York – Montreal) up 2.9 percent when compared to last Thanksgiving.

South Highlights
In addition, Virginia routes had sizable gains over Thanksgiving last year with the Washington – Lynchburg route increasing 24.6 percent and the Washington – Newport News route up 11.9 percent. The North Carolina supported Piedmont service (Charlotte – Raleigh) experienced a gain of 10.6 percent.

Central Highlights
In the Central U.S., every corridor reported ridership increases, including on routes in Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin. The largest gains were seen on the Heartland Flyer (Fort Worth – Oklahoma City), up 16 percent and up 7 percent on the corridor between Chicago and Carbondale, Ill., where ridership is shared by the Illini/Saluki/City of New Orleans state-supported and national network trains.

West Highlights
In the West, the Capitol Corridor service (Auburn/Sacramento – SF/Oakland – San Jose) was up 9.1 percent over the same period last year. Ridership on San Joaquin trains (Oakland/Sacramento – Bakersfield) was up 6.4 percent and the Pacific Surfliner service (San Luis Obispo – Santa Barbara – Los Angeles – San Diego) was up 3 percent.

Long-distance Highlights
Among the 15 overnight long distance trains, ridership was up 1.8 percent over the Thanksgiving period last year, with the largest percentage gains posted by the Texas Eagle (Chicago – San Antonio) up 17.2 percent, Crescent (New York – Atlanta – New Orleans) up 15.4 percent, City of New Orleans (Chicago – Memphis – New Orleans) up 12.6 percent and the Lake Shore Limited (Chicago – New York/Boston) up 10.5 percent.

In preparation for the anticipated heavy passenger volume during Thanksgiving, Amtrak operated every available passenger rail car in its fleet and scheduled extra trains to accommodate additional passengers in the Northeast and on the West Coast. The Amtrak equipment fleet was slightly larger this year due to rehabilitated and refurbished railcars and locomotive engines that were recently restored to service.

Amtrak is expecting continued strong ridership for December, following the busy November and the all-time record of 30.2 million set in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2011.

About Amtrak
Celebrating 40 years of dedicated service as America’s Railroad®, Amtrak is the nation’s intercity passenger rail provider and its only high-speed rail operator. A record 30.2 million passengers traveled on Amtrak in FY 2011 on more than 300 daily trains – at speeds up to 150 mph (241 kph) – that connect 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian Provinces. Amtrak operates trains in partnership with 15 states and four commuter rail agencies. Enjoy the journeysm at Amtrak.com or call 800-USA-RAIL for schedules, fares and more information. Join us on facebook.com/Amtrak and follow us at twitter.com/Amtrak.