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Airline Delays Renew Interest in Passenger Rail
According to the latest statistics released by the U.S. DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, airline on-time performance slipped by nearly four percentage points compared to the same period last year. The overall on-time arrival rate for July 2007 was 69.8 percent, as compared to July 2006’s 73.7 percent.
Reasons cited included system delays, late-arriving aircraft, crew issues, extreme weather and security reasons.
Meanwhile, during fiscal year 2006, Amtrak carried more than 24.3 million passengers, representing the fourth straight fiscal year of record ridership when comparing the same routes. According to Amtrak, if they are included among U.S. airlines, Amtrak would rank 8th (based on 2005 data) in the number of passengers served.
Amtrak Board Chairman David Laney recently spoke at the Second Annual Texas Transportation Forum about the renewed interest in passenger rail, saying that “ridership is at its highest level in Amtrak history and rising, revenue is at its highest level in Amtrak history and rising.”
Laney went on to discuss the effect highway and air traffic congestion, as well as extreme weather, had on passenger travel, and then said of Amtrak corridor service: “If I can get from NYC to DC, more or less the distance from Dallas to Austin or Houston, in two and a half hours, arriving on time over 90 percent of the time in virtually any kind of weather, why consider an alternative? That’s why our trains are full, our ridership is at record levels and growing, and our market share between DC and NYC now hovers around 60 percent.”
He later added, “Trust me—there is a role for corridor service between Texas’ great metropolitan areas, that along with highway and air service, might just keep [Texas] one step ahead of the competition.”
