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Amtrak Ridership Increases On Route Through Tampa

Tribune File Photo By JAY NOLAN

Passengers prepare to board the southbound Silver Star Amtrak train in Tampa.

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By TED JACKOVICS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 10, 2009

TAMPA - Ridership continues to grow on Amtrak's Silver Star serving Tampa on its New York-Miami route, bucking nationwide projections of lower ridership because of the recession and a decline in gasoline prices.

The Silver Star increased ridership by 4 percent in December to 32,894 passengers from all of its stops, an Amtrak report stated. Details of Tampa travel were not available, but anecdotal accounts reveal local ridership has grown in recent months.

Results in January were even better, with Silver Star ridership up 18 percent over January 2008, according to data obtained by the National Association of Railroad Passengers in Washington.

"Ridership on overnight trains as a group are up and part of the explanation I've heard Amtrak give is better on-time performance," NARP president Ross Capon said.

Capon also said people don't believe gasoline prices will remain low and are looking at the total cost of driving.

"They don't want to replace their car as early as they might have in the past, so they are looking at train travel as an alternative when possible," Capon said.

Florida is not as well positioned as at least a dozen other states to obtain federal stimulus funds for Amtrak because some funds are expected to go to states with well developed rail programs, Capon said.

However, the Florida High Speed Rail Authority submitted a resolution to Gov. Charlie Crist on March 2 seeking the governor's support to seek funds from an $8 billion pool for high speed rail in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The authority had been inactive since November 2004, when voters opposed granting state taxes for high-speed rail between Tampa, Orlando and Miami,

Amtrak finished fiscal 2008 on Sept. 30 with an 11.1 percent increase in ridership to a record of 28.7 million passengers.

Since then, long distance ridership nationwide grew 6.8 percent through December, with the Silver Star up 9.3 percent. Short distance travel grew 4.2 percent and Northeast Corridor travel declined 7.6 percent, resulting in a system-wide decline of 0.2 percent to 7 million passengers for the first quarter.

Reporter Ted Jackovics can be reached at (813) 259-7817.

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