Sorry, but it looks like a losing proposition even when it was funded.
Amtrak intentionally makes it difficult, but here's 2013 to 2021 (since the year ends 9/30, 2022 is only six months in progress, so it's not meaningful just yet)
Code: Select allYear 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Ridership (000s) 199 189 178 170 173 167 152 86 77
RT Boardings per cap50m 1.7% 1.6% 1.5% 1.5% 1.5% 1.4% 1.3% 0.7% 0.7%
Load Factor (per Amtrak) n/a n/a n/a n/a 42.0% 31.0% 46.0% 28.0% 25.0%
Total Daily (all trips) 545 518 488 466 474 458 416 236 211
You can't ignore that ridership was already shrinking by 25% from 2013 to 2019... and FY2019 ended three months before anyone had heard of COVID.
Further... you can't blame Jefferson City - MO had a Democrat Governor 2009 to 2017, and the balance of power in the state Senate hasn't really changed from 2009 to 2021 (23R/11D to 24R/10D). It's the state House where the most visible changes have happened (89R/74D to 114R/49D).
With the metro areas shrinking while the rest of the state grows, that shift from almost a 50/50 to a 70/30 House is not exactly surprising as the suburbs and rural areas tend to vote more conservative... Growth in the metro area was essentially flat 2010 to 2020, even though the state's population as a whole grew by around 3%. Looking at 2021 data, STL is actually in a population winter i.e. a birth+inmigration rate lower than the death+outmigration rate.
All that said.... if the train benefits STL and KCI primarily, with a declining population in both there's not as much sentiment or even reason to keep pouring good money after bad.
Did they shorten the trains in 2019? Losing a car or two would explain why load factor jumped even though the trend of declining ridership from previous years continued...
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