News Amtrak celebrates another year of record ridership


Bratislava cross- city rail link postponed


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Amtrak will extend its popular Downeaster service this month. Photo: Joe Calisi


HE United States’ national passenger operator Amtrak carried more than 31.2 million passengers in the financial year ending September 30, the highest annual ridership total in its 41-year history and the ninth ridership record in 10 years. A year-on-year comparison of the 2012 and 2011 financial years shows ridership grew 3.5% while ticket revenues jumped 6.8% to a record high of $US 2.02bn. In addition, on- time performance rose from 78.1% to 83%, its highest level in 12 years. “People are riding Amtrak trains in record numbers across the country because there is an undeniable demand


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to travel by rail,” says president and CEO Mr Joe Boardman. “Ridership will continue to grow because of key investments made by Amtrak and our federal and state partners to improve on- time performance, reliability, capacity and train speeds.” During the 2012 financial


year, passenger numbers on the Northeast Corridor grew 4.8% to a record 11.4 million, while state-supported and other short distance routes saw 2.1% growth to a record 15.1 million. Ridership on long-distance services increased 4.7% to a 19-year high of 4.7 million. Boardman anticipates a strong start to the 2013


Emsland regional concession awarded L


OWER Saxony Transport Authority (LNVG) and Westphalia-Lippe Transport have awarded


Westfalenbahn the concession to operate Germany‘s Emlsand regional network for 15 years from December 2015.


The concession, which is currently operated by DB Regio, covers services between Münster and Emden via Rheine, Meppen, and Leer with a total of 2.4 million train-km per year. Westfalenbahn has pledged to introduce new emus on the route from the start of the concession and a tender is being prepared. The introduction of new trains will support service enhancements, including the introduction of regular- interval hourly services on the busiest section of the route between Meppen and Rheine. There will also be additional late evening and morning services.


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financial year with the extension of Downeaster services to Freeport and Brunswick, Maine, on November 1, and the extension of the Virginia Northeast Regional service to Norfolk on December 12. Factors contributing to Amtrak’s long-term ridership growth include improved passenger services such as Wi-Fi and eTicketing, high fuel prices, continued growth in business travel on the Northeast Corridor, the increased appeal and popularity of rail travel, dissatisfaction with congested highways and air travel, and effective marketing campaigns.


LOVAKIA’s transport minister Mr Ján Pociatek announced on October 8 that a ƒ420m project to build a north-south rail link under the centre of Bratislava will be delayed until after 2014. The heavy rail element of the Bratislava Integrated Transport System involves reopening the line from Predmesti to Filiáka, and boring a new 2.5km tunnel under the Danube to join the existing line to Vienna north of Petrzalka station. Pociatek says the government decided to remove the project from Slovakia’s 2007-2013 Transport Operational Programme following the conclusion of a feasibility study carried out on behalf of the European Commission, which recommended that the link should not go ahead in its current form for technical and financial reasons. Slovakia had planned to


secure most of the funding for the project from European Union sources. The government says funding already allocated to the line will be diverted to other projects, including the acquisition of new suburban trains for Bratislava and Košice and the first phase of Bratislava’s Hlavná Stanica - Šafárikovo Námesti - Janíkov Dvor light rail line.


RFF ordered to improve infrastructure quality F


RANCE’s junior transport minister, Mr Frédéric Cuvillier,


has instructed French Rail Network (RFF) to produce a plan within six months to renovate the country’s rail network, and in particular its major rail corridors.


This will form the basis for a new performance contract between the state and RFF for 2013-2017. According to a report in Le Monde, Cuvillier says: “The objective is not only to replace the rail and ballast, but also to modernise the network to improve the traffic flow, reliability and safety - in brief its overall performance.”


According to an audit published by Lausanne Federal Polytechnic, between 10 and 20% of main lines have exceeded their reasonable economic life. The average life of the infrastructure on the main lines was 15 years in 1990, but had increased to 20 years by 2005. The government wants the average age to reduce to 18 years by mid-2020. Spending on improving the quality of the network will increase by ƒ300m a year to ƒ2bn. RFF estimates there will need to be more than 1000 projects annually across the network to increase capacity and improve reliability.


IRJ November 2012


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