Amtrak ridership surged in NY this year, exceeding expectations. Here's why.
Amtrak ridership surged in New York this year, exceeding pre-pandemic totals on a popular Albany-to-Manhattan route as intercity rail travel gains momentum in the northeast.
Amtrak’s New York stations had ridership of 12.3 million in the fiscal year that ended in September, with the bulk (10.2 million) coming through its Penn Station hub in midtown Manhattan. That’s around 43% of the 28.5 million rides on all of Amtrak’s nationwide routes during the same time frame.
Overall, ridership in the northeast corridor has been exceeding pre-pandemic levels by 15% to 20% since early summer.
Some of the biggest gains have come on the Empire South route, which includes a run from Manhattan to Albany popular with state government workers. Empire South’s ridership of 1.24 million in the 2023 fiscal year exceeded the 1.21 million total tallied in 2019 before the pandemic hit.
It’s the second busiest Amtrak route in the nation, behind the west coast’s Pacific Surfliner, which tallied 1.5 million rides.
A different story on Metro-North
Amtrak’s gains come as Metro-North Railroad, the nation’s second busiest commuter rail after the Long Island Rail Road, struggles to get back to pre-pandemic ridership levels.
At the end of November, Metro-North’s ridership was at 53.8 million, 24% above 2022 levels for the same stretch but 32% below the 79.3 million tallied during the same 11 months in 2019.
Metro-North’s totals, while improving, reflect the railroad’s dependence on the daily commuter heading into New York City from the Hudson Valley and Connecticut.
Many of the railroad’s most dependable commuters — those in the professional and financial sectors — continue on a hybrid schedule, going into the office three days a week, typically Tuesday through Thursday. Weekend travel on the commuter rail has fared better in recent months, at roughly 86% of pre-pandemic levels.
Amtrak, meanwhile, benefits from heavy weekend travel as well as the hybrid commuter, according to Gary Prophet, the president of the Empire State Passenger Association, an advocacy group with 1,400 members.
Prophet says Amtrak’s intercity routes allow hybrid workers to travel between Albany and New York City or Buffalo and Syracuse a few days a week.
“With remote work people can do that trip a couple times a week and come home a couple times a week,” Prophet said. “Whereas, if you had to be in there five days a week it’s a lot harder to do a two and a half hour commute every day from Albany to New York.”
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The Albany-Rensselaer station’s ridership of 790,517, was second to Penn Station in ridership among New York stations last year. In third, was the Hudson station with 245,000. Fort Edward-Glens Falls had the lowest ridership total — 7,588 — among regular New York stations.
Prophet says Amtrak has done a good job in recent years adopting an airline pricing model, increasing and decreasing prices depending on anticipated demand.
NY routes to Canada, New England see increases
Night Owl fares as low as $5 to $20 have been introduced on some northeast corridor routes.
Some other ridership highlights this year:
The Empire West/Maple Leaf, which runs west to Toronto, had ridership of 452,711, nearly 18% above 2022 levels.
The Ethan Allen, which crosses into Vermont, had ridership of nearly 90,000, up 37%. And the Amtrak Downeaster in Maine set a record with ridership of 542,639, a 22% bump.
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Ridership has Amtrak investing millions in infrastructure
Nationally, Amtrak’s ridership of 28.5 million was still below 2019’s 32.5 million rides.
The surging numbers have Amtrak, which relies on state and federal subsidies, looking to double ridership by 2040.
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It’s invested $124 million in annual track improvements along the northeast corridor and in the years to come will be able to increase capacity in New York and New Jersey with the rehabilitation of the East River Tunnel as well as the Gateway tunnels project.
“We’re inspired by the soaring demand for intercity passenger rail and are eager to continue connecting more people and places,” Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner said last month, in announcing the latest ridership figures.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Amtrak sees surge in NY ridership in 2023. What's behind the increase?
