FY 2012 Ridership by Station

orulz wrote:Again betraying my North Carolinian-ness, but I'm struck that the top 2 cities in North Carolina fall in the range of the top 5 of any state except California. Charlotte has also overtaken Raleigh as the number 1 ridership station in NC. With less crappy stations, certainly both Charlotte and Raleigh would do even better.

That's especially true for Raleigh. As we discussed previously, Raleigh had a big drop in ridership in FY12, with a number of people opting for Cary instead (which had a big increase). Likely due to the lack of parking at Raleigh.

Greg Moore wrote:

orulz wrote:Again betraying my North Carolinian-ness, but I'm struck that the top 2 cities in North Carolina fall in the range of the top 5 of any state except California. Charlotte has also overtaken Raleigh as the number 1 ridership station in NC. With less crappy stations, certainly both Charlotte and Raleigh would do even better.

Not to burst your bubble, but I suspect it's somewhat of a statistical anomaly. Most states aren't going to have more than 4-5 "large cities" and the largest cities are the most likely to be served by Amtrak.

Since you mention Cary and California in the same sentence, I've noticed a similarity between Raleigh/Cary and San Diego/San Diego Old Town.



In both cases, a smaller station nearby with available parking is siphoning passengers off of downtown. Old Town has 437 "Park and Ride" lot spaces, with 350+ overflow spaces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Town_T ... _Center%29

jstolberg , if you have the station data going back 4-5 years, you should do a bar chart for the Keystone corridor stations from Pittsburgh to Ardmore. Might be rather crowded though.

afiggatt wrote:jstolberg , if you have the station data going back 4-5 years, you should do a bar chart for the Keystone corridor stations from Pittsburgh to Ardmore. Might be rather crowded though.

Allow me to break it into two charts.





Please note that the charts are not to the same scale. The Keystone stations handle many more passengers.

John Stolberg

looks like amtrak is getting beaten by mega and the hound out of Pittsburgh.

Suburban Station wrote:looks like amtrak is getting beaten by mega and the hound out of Pittsburgh.

The consequence of 1x/day ....

Suburban Station wrote:looks like amtrak is getting beaten by mega and the hound out of Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, from Pittsburgh Amtrak only has one early morning departure to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvanian vs three daily departures on Megabus and nine on the dog. The Keystone stations are all showing increases.

The Empire service with several daily frequencies is showing growth all along the line.

jstolberg wrote:

Suburban Station wrote:looks like amtrak is getting beaten by mega and the hound out of Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, from Pittsburgh Amtrak only has one early morning departure to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvanian vs three daily departures on Megabus and nine on the dog. The Keystone stations are all showing increases.

The Empire service with several daily frequencies is showing growth all along the line.

very surprising that hudson and rhinecliff are some of the most trafficked stations on the line given that they aren't located in large towns. hudson isn't a very big place, and rhinebeck is tiny. people coming from kingston maybe?

fishball wrote:very surprising that hudson and rhinecliff are some of the most trafficked stations on the line given that they aren't located in large towns. hudson isn't a very big place, and rhinebeck is tiny. people coming from kingston maybe?

Of course I left Albany and NYP off the chart because they would dwarf the others.

How far will people go to catch a train?

Just heard of a friend tonight who drove from Rockford, IL to Toledo, OH to get the first open seat on the Capitol Limited to Pittsburgh then change trains to Lancaster, PA. That was after United cancelled the plane from O'Hare two hours after boarding. Distance from home to where she boarded the train, 335 miles. Mom is driving back to Rockford today.

That, of course is an extreme case. Most people won't go more than 25 miles.

fishball wrote:

jstolberg wrote:

Suburban Station wrote:looks like amtrak is getting beaten by mega and the hound out of Pittsburgh.

Unfortunately, from Pittsburgh Amtrak only has one early morning departure to Philadelphia on the Pennsylvanian vs three daily departures on Megabus and nine on the dog. The Keystone stations are all showing increases.

The Empire service with several daily frequencies is showing growth all along the line.

very surprising that hudson and rhinecliff are some of the most trafficked stations on the line given that they aren't located in large towns. hudson isn't a very big place, and rhinebeck is tiny. people coming from kingston maybe?

A lot of NYC commuters believe it or not from Hudson and Rhinecliff. Some do it weekly (go down Monday, back Friday) but some even do it daily.

I'm actually surprised Syracuse and other "western" stations are as high as they are since they have far fewer frequencies.

fishball wrote:very surprising that hudson and rhinecliff are some of the most trafficked stations on the line given that they aren't located in large towns. hudson isn't a very big place, and rhinebeck is tiny. people coming from kingston maybe?

While Hudson and Rhinecliff themselves are not large, they serve a pretty well-populated "catchment" area. There is, IIRC, some sort of water shuttle from Kingston to Rhinecliff during the summer months.

was another frequency west of albany added sometime between the 2010 data and the 2011 data? it looks like ridership took a noticeable jump at that point, especially at rochester

fishball wrote:was another frequency west of albany added sometime between the 2010 data and the 2011 data? it looks like ridership took a noticeable jump at that point, especially at rochester

Nope, it's been four frequencies west of Schenectady for some years now. The jump from '10 to '11 just represents increased ridership on the same trains.

Station Aficionado wrote:

fishball wrote:was another frequency west of albany added sometime between the 2010 data and the 2011 data? it looks like ridership took a noticeable jump at that point, especially at rochester

Nope, it's been four frequencies west of Schenectady for some years now. The jump from '10 to '11 just represents increased ridership on the same trains.

The rest of the Lake Shore route is just as impressive. Here's the chart for the stations west of Buffalo. The numbers include boardings and alightings of both the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited.

jstolberg wrote:The rest of the Lake Shore route is just as impressive. Here's the chart for the stations west of Buffalo. The numbers include boardings and alightings of both the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited.

I wonder when Cleveland last hit 50,000 (and, yes, that is a rather pathetic milestone for a big city) in intercity ridership? And the heavy burden imposed by in-the-wee-hours arrival times certainly shows up in Toledo having consistently bigger ridership than Cleveland.