Amtrak ridership falls below expectations in fiscal 1Q 2009

Amtrak in a statement Wednesday posted on the Examiner.com site said it carried fewer passengers than expected in fiscal 1Q 2009 as businesses cut back on travel and more Americans returned to the roads as fuel prices declined from summer highs. October through December 2009 is the first quarter of fiscal year 2009 for Amtrak.

Some points from the statement:

"Amtrak carried 7.05 million passengers from October through December, the first quarter of fiscal year 2009. That's just slightly fewer riders than the same period last year, but nearly 5 percent below what the company expected for the quarter.

Revenue for the quarter was 7 percent below expectations for the government-owned corporation, which has posted six years of ridership and revenue growth.

The northeast corridor between Washington and Boston, particularly the higher-speed Acela service, led Amtrak's decline in ridership and revenue for the quarter.

Acela trains, which are popular with business travelers, carried about 806,000 passengers from October through December, about 9 percent fewer trips than a year ago and 12 percent below what Amtrak expected for the quarter."

A drop in ridership on the NEC was expected as I posted prior. I think Amtrak should be able to figure out that business travel composes a large part of the NEC traffic and since we're in a recession they should've anticipated a loss in ridership along the NEC and lowered revenue projections accordingly.