Projo Biz Blog

As the airline industry has run into turbulence prompted by high fuel costs, Amtrak and its Northeast Corridor service that connects Providence, Boston, New York and Washington have kept chugging along.

Amtrak said increases in ridership and ticket revenues resulted from increasing gasoline prices, competitive advantages over the airline industry and improved service on trains.

Recently released figures for the month of March show the national passenger railroad had an overall 12.9 percent increase in ticket revenues over last year, beating the company’s budget by 10.5 percent. Ticket revenues totaled $143 million this March.

The Northeast Corridor’s gains for the same period were 10.2 percent over last year and 10.6 percent ahead of budget. Ticket revenues in March for the corridor were $80.4 million.
Ridership for the month saw an 11.5 percent increase over last year for Amtrak as a whole, rising to 2.42 million passengers. Northeast Corridor ridership rose 7.0 percent to 933,000.

Fiscal-year-to-date figures, from Oct. 1 through March 31, showed a 14.5 percent increase over last year in ticket revenue for the entire system, reaching $815.5 million. For the Northeast Corridor, the increase was 17.3 percent, to $470.5 million.

Overall year-to-date ridership rose 11.7 percent to 13.5 million, while the Northeast Corridor rose 11.9 percent to 5.4 million

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