Amtrak carried 90.5 percent as many passenger-miles in June 2023 as the same month in 2019, according to the company’s monthly performance report released yesterday. This is only the third time Amtrak exceeded 90 percent of pre-COVID levels; the first time, in November 2022, it carried 90.8 percent and the second time, in April 2023, it carried 90.9 percent.
Data for driving is not yet available but an update will be posted here when it is. See Saturday’s post for a discussion of transit and air travel.
When measured by number of riders, the Northeast Corridor performed best, carrying 93.6 percent of 2019 numbers. Long-distance trains carried 85.5 percent while state-supported day trains carried just 81.4 percent. Amtrak didn’t reveal passenger-miles by train in 2019 so a comparison using that measure by route or train type isn’t possible.
Amtrak’s Chicago-St. Louis service carried 84.4 percent of 2019 riders in May and 87.2 percent in June. As discussed here yesterday, train speeds in that corridor were increased on June 26. We’ll watch future monthly performance reports to see if that speed-up helps attract more passengers.
