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April 30, 2008

Amtrak Northeast corridor up in riders, revenue

Amtrak's Northeast corridor posted January ridership and revenue numbers well ahead of both last year and the national passenger rail company's budget.

Amtrak cited improved on-time performance, faster service, higher gas prices and poor competition from the airline industry as factors in the increases.

The Northeast corridor includes stops in Westerly, Kingston and Providence along the route that runs from Boston to Washington.

Revenue climbed 18 percent for the month of January over last year, according to recently released figures. That beat the budget by 14 percent. The Acela high-speed service posted a 22 percent gain over last year, with Northeast Regional trains seeing a 14 percent increase.

Amtrak's January revenues in the Northeast corridor were $67.7 million, 57 percent of the company's total revenues of $119.1 million for the month.

Revenues also climbed because of a fare increase that did not dampen ridership.

In fact, ridership increased 13 percent versus last year and 12 percent versus the budget. The Northeast corridor carried 790,000 passengers in January, 39 percent of overall ridership for the month of more than 2 million.

Posted by Paul Parker  at 11:00 AM | Permalink

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