People across the Midwest are riding the train in record numbers according to Amtrak’s most recent annual ridership and revenue report.
Here are a few highlights:
- The Empire Builder – beginning in Chicago and traveling through Minnesota on its way to the Pacific Northwest – is Amtrak’s most popular overnight passenger train. More than half a million people rode the route last year.
- Ridership totals on the shorter-run corridor services are up 55% across the Midwest during the past five years.
- The Hiawatha service between Chicago and Milwaukee has seen a 49% increase in ridership during the past five years and recently topped three-quarters of a million riders during the past year.
As Illinois Rep. Elaine Nekritz, chair of the Midwest Interstate Passenger Rail Commission (MIPRC), put it: “These numbers confirm what state and federal officials are increasingly realizing – expanding and improving passenger rail service makes sense for the Midwest.”
For more information:
