One impact of high gasoline prices is already becoming clear: Train ridership in California is rising rapidly. The San Joaquin route, which includes Fresno, has seen an increase of 12.6% in passengers between October and May. That's an additional 580,000 riders.
The numbers are even better for the Capitol Corridor, which connects Sacramento to the Bay Area. That route now carries 13.2% more passengers, up 1.1 million. The Pacific Surfliner, which connects San Diego and San Luis Obispo by way of Los Angeles, grew 4.9%, or 1.8 million.
Similar numbers are coming in across the nation. In the heavily traveled Northeast corridor, for instance, the semi-high-speed Acela trains have grabbed 42% of the market, and rising.
All of this growth is happening despite the shortcomings of Amtrak, which are significant. Amtrak's on-time performance isn't good, largely because the trains must share tracks with freight trains, and often have to pull over and sit while the freight trains lumber by. But an increasing number of people are making the rail choice anyway.
That's good news for everyone. Air pollution is reduced, highway congestion is eased and many ex-drivers are finding themselves in much better moods at the end of the trip -- not to mention the fatter wallets they have because they aren't buying so much gasoline.
I have been taking Amtrak to visit my son up near Sacramento and it is quite enjoyable and much more reasonable than driving.
I love train rides. For each of my European trips, I bougt a EURAIL pass, and I even used the first class compartments as my bedroom. I felt safe there when taravelling alone. My long legs never had to be perma-folded like on the airplane or in the automobile. Dining in the train's dining car is a classy experience. Of course one cannot take along everything and the kitchen sink like in the car. But you can take the car along on the train like a suitcase, ready for use at will. I LOVE TRAINS!
basta!
Hi Russ. If the Sacto Bee does have correct numbers in its article, your post grossly misstates the 6-month increase in San Joaquin line ridership by 516,000 of 580,000, or 806%. Your post repeats the same error in the Capitol corridor and Pacific Surfliner numbers.
According to the Sac Bee article, the San Joaquin line (including all riders in the counties of Kern, Hanford, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, and San Joaquin, plus the Bay Area commuters from Sacramento, Solano, Contra Costa, and Alameda counties) is now only about 97,000 per month, after the increase, which was only less than 11,000 per month including all the Oakland and Sacramento traffic.
Nothing wrong with liking trains, but don't think that Fresno/San Joaquin line ridership is anything close to 9.2 million per year. It's only about 1/10 of that, including riders from all the counties named above.