From Crain’s Detroit Business
The daily Amtrak rail service between Detroit/Pontiac and Chicago — known as the Wolverine line — saw a nearly 23 percent quarter-vs.-quarter increase to 130,683 passengers in the first quarter of the fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31.
Ticket revenue on the route increased more than 26 percent to nearly $5 million compared with the same period a year ago, the Michigan Department of Transportation said in a statement.
The state’s two other Amtrak routes also saw passenger and revenue gains:
• Blue Water (Port Huron-Chicago): 29.5 percent increase to 46,272 passengers. Ticket revenue was up 25.7 percent to $1.4 million.
• Pere Marquette (Grand Rapids and Chicago): 7.8 percent increase to 25,916 passengers and a 14.1 percent increase in ticket revenue of $801,219.
The increases are attributed to gains in customer opinions of Amtrak and a rise in interest in rail travel in general, MDOT said.
Amtrak saw a record 28.7 million passengers nationally in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, along with a record $1.74 billion in ticket revenue.
But the national system continues to require taxpayer subsidies to operate.
Amtrak is the government-owned intercity passenger rail service, known officially since its inception in 1971 as the National Railroad Passenger Corp. It received about $1.6 billion in federal aid to cover operational and capital costs in its last fiscal year.
The service saw $2.5 billion in total revenue last year, against $3.7 billion in expenses, according to Amtrak’s annual report.
Fifteen states also provide local subsidies. Michigan budgeted $7.8 million in annual operating subsidies for the Pere Marquette and Blue Water routes in the 2009-10 fiscal year. That’s the bulk of the $12.4 million set aside by Lansing for passenger rail service in the state’s Comprehensive Transportation Fund.
The Detroit-Chicago line doesn’t receive any state dollars.