The article doesn’t specify as to why, and I’m curious.
An absurd amount of New Yorkers, myself included, moved out of the city in the last four years. As a result, Metro North has seen a substantial increase in traffic in and out of the city.
Did this happen in other cities too, or is the increase in Amtrak traffic more organic?
The state of passenger rail in the United States on lines that don’t serve New York City is pretty pathetic, so I’d think that an increase in the number of New York passengers, by itself, would actually represent a significant increase in the total number of passengers, nationally.
It absolutely does in regard to all train traffic, but this article is specifically about Amtrak. NYC is serviced by MTA, and trains into the city are provided by their subsidiary, Metro North.
If it were just stochastic variation, I’d agree, but ridership was growing for years up to 2019. It (mysteriously!) cratered in 2020 and 2021, so I think that the fact that it’s already topping the 2019 number is notable.
The article doesn’t specify as to why, and I’m curious.
An absurd amount of New Yorkers, myself included, moved out of the city in the last four years. As a result, Metro North has seen a substantial increase in traffic in and out of the city.
Did this happen in other cities too, or is the increase in Amtrak traffic more organic?
The state of passenger rail in the United States on lines that don’t serve New York City is pretty pathetic, so I’d think that an increase in the number of New York passengers, by itself, would actually represent a significant increase in the total number of passengers, nationally.
It absolutely does in regard to all train traffic, but this article is specifically about Amtrak. NYC is serviced by MTA, and trains into the city are provided by their subsidiary, Metro North.
NYC is served by several train lines, including Amtrak. Some of the others are LIRR and NJ Transit but I didn’t find a complete list in a brief search
A couple of months ago there were all sorts of stats trying to explain it. It should be easy to search but you’ll find a lot
Numbers are almost identical to 2019 Amtrak ridership, so kind of a stretch to call it a new record.
If it were just stochastic variation, I’d agree, but ridership was growing for years up to 2019. It (mysteriously!) cratered in 2020 and 2021, so I think that the fact that it’s already topping the 2019 number is notable.
This did happen elsewhere but most such places do not have much rail service so I’m not sure it’s behind the trend.