"Amtrak's Northeast Ridership Falls as Business Travel Declines" - Bloomberg

A Bloomberg story by Chris Dolmetsch "Amtrak's Northeast Ridership Falls as Business Travel Declines" notes that ridership on Amtrak's trains between Boston and Washington, including Acela, fell 5 percent in October from a year ago as business travel declined.

This is the first time I have ever seen a story stating there was a decline in NEC ridership of any sort since I started this blog.

The article goes on to state:

"The number of trips taken last month on the Acela declined 6.3 percent to 304,577 from October 2007, while trips taken on Northeast Regional trains dropped 4.5 percent to 621,694."

"Overall, Amtrak ridership rose 4.4 percent in October from a year earlier, and there were more travelers on almost all of the railroad's routes outside of the Northeast."

So ridership is up overall at Amtrak but down in the NEC. I think it's reasonable to say that business travel along the NEC will decline along with the economy. I'd say Amtrak NEC ridership in 2009 will be slightly less than 2008 due to the economy.  A few more empty seats for commuters?