State Fact Sheets FY2016

FYI, the State Fact Sheets for FY2016 with station passenger numbers and other info have been posted.

Two station numbers to start with:

NYP: FY16 = 10,436,909; FY15 = 10,189,521

One that I had wondered about with the respectable ridership increase on the CZ.

Denver: FY16 = 139,652; FY15 = 126,403. 10.5% increase, not bad.

Chicago, BTW, had a slight decline in total passengers. Probably can be attributed to the track work service interruptions for the Lincoln and Wolverine corridor services.

That's a very respectable boost at Denver. About 13,000 /year.

I took at look at NY; Albany is up by 30,000. Unfortunately almost everything else is down. Not sure why. Hopefully some of the new stations will help.

I suspect, looking at the overall picture, that low gas prices are the main reason for the drops at the many rural stations.

Here in Iowa the most passengers boarded and alighted at a pretty small, not staffed station - Osceola.

Which makes sense with Osceola being the closest Amtrak station to the state's largest urban area (the greater Des Moines area) as well as being in very close proximity to an interstate highway, I-35.

All but one of Iowa's Amtrak stations are on the California Zephyr route. The one station, Ft. Madison, is on the Southwest Chief route.

I board/alight the CZ in Ottumwa, a staffed station and the 3rd most used station in Iowa, though Osceola is very close to the same distance from my home.

I drive an extra 20 minutes further than it takes to get to Ft. Madison, and board/alight the SWC in Galesburg, IL so I can ride the #3 for an additional hour or so when heading towards/from LA.

The extra hour on the SWC costs me $2 in seat fare. Cheap entertainment.

Iowa station usage was up 6.5% over FY15, while station usage was only up 0.7% in FY15 compared to FY14.

Other states the CZ serves were also up - Nebraska (3.5%), Colorado (10.8%), Utah (11.5%), and Nevada (19.9%) - over FY15.

I've used OSC a number of times. Losing the station attendant there is regrettable (since it's unstaffed I presume the lady who worked it either retired from duties or passed on).

neroden said:

That's a very respectable boost at Denver. About 13,000 /year.

I took at look at NY; Albany is up by 30,000. Unfortunately almost everything else is down. Not sure why. Hopefully some of the new stations will help.

I suspect, looking at the overall picture, that low gas prices are the main reason for the drops at the many rural stations.

Click to expand...

I think it is a combination of gas prices and tons of track projects that have resulted in numerous canceled or rerouted trains.

Denver would make a great hub, don't ya think? With money in hand [of course], restore the Pioneer, add the Caprock Express, and keep the California Zephyr. A train via Cheyenne, Laurel, Missoula to/from Spokane would be good, too.!

Looks like San Antonio has suffered yet another year of continuing passenger losses.

Sunset Limited is a lost cause until/unless it goes daily, so I don't blame Amtrak for cutting their losses by running the train to minimize equipment usage rather than to maximize passengers. The 18K lost passengers from San Antonio are much less than the gains on the daily Superliner trains, and so it's clear where the equipment needs to be allocated...