Passenger Trains > Illinois ridership/Revenue continue to smash records...

March 08 ridership: (Does NOT include any long distance trains...only the 300 series trains)

CHI-STL:
42,932 (vs. 33,857 March 07) (Not quite an all time high)

CHI-CDL:
24,581 (vs. 20,857 March 07)...new monthly high beating Dec. 07 (23,375)

CHI-QCY
17, 240 (vs. 14,107 March 07) (not quite topping Dec. 07's numbers)

CHI-MKE
62,399 (vs. 47,863 March 07) all time monthly high (i believe)?


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Fiscal Year to Date (Oct. - March)

CHI - STL
Ridership: 223,634 Vs 174,337 (FY07) Vs 193,116 (budgeted)

Ticket Revenue: $5,152,206 Vs $3,709,400 (FY07) Vs $4,345,395 (budgeted)


CHI - CDL
Ridership: 133,070 Vs 106,172 (FY07) Vs 118,582 (Budgeted)

Ticket Revenue: $3,805,206 Vs $2,899,462 (FY07) Vs $3,419,347 (budgeted)


CHI- - QCY
Ridership: 94,053 Vs 75,879 (FY07) Vs 86,081 (budgeted)

Ticket Revenue: $2,331,994 Vs $1,752,203 (FY07) Vs $2,107,920 (Budgeted)


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All three routes combined are
Ridership: 450,757 Vs 356,388 (FY07) Vs 397,779 (budgeted)

Total Ridership is Up 94,369 over last year and is 52,978 above budget


Ticket Revenue: $11,289,406 Vs $8,361,065 (FY07) Vs $9,872,662

Total Ticket Revenue is UP $2,928,341 (that's 2.9 MILLION!!) over last year and is $1,416,744 above budget


*numbers do NOT include the Hiawatha's* just the three Illinois Intrastate corridors)

Great. Now track investment needed.

Great news--thanks for posting the information.

Where do you find such current reports? The Illinois DOT web site only has corridor data posted through January 2008.

http://www.dot.il.gov/amtrak/PDF/Monthly_Corridor_readership.pdf

They do have ridership posted by city through April 2008, but these data seem to include long-distance trains as well as the 300-series trains, so I'm not sure how to accurately calculate state-supported corridor totals from that information, not to mention how to compare it to last year (since I didn't happen to save the document with full CY2007 data before it was replaced with the Jan 2008 report).

http://www.dot.il.gov/amtrak/PDF/rptTotalRidersOnOffbyMonth.pdf

cutboy2 Wrote:
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> Great. Now track investment needed.

And a couple of more Chicago-St. Louis roundtrips in the timetable.

Just think, what could be done, if more equipment could be assigned to the trains, along with better timekeeping and not the best track conditions.

It's amazing why Illinois waited so long.

Corridors thrive on multiple frequencies.

It's pretty simple.

Now, where is the plan for bihourly or hourly service?

And the so called HSR in Illinois is still like a pipe dream no thanks to them draggin' their feet as ususal after runnin' that test train last year!

I bet all the conductors and cafe car attendants (if they have cafe's) are complainin' and whinin' that they have to work more harder now. No more sittin' in the lounge car tellin' stories. They actually have to be up collecting tickets and assisting passengers and actually lifting a finger and doing their job.


I don't know of any conductors who whine or complain, but I sure have met my share of a**hole passengers.....

Needed improvements in the track catagory:
- flyovers at ARGO, NERSKA, CORWITH, etc.
- get all passing sidings operating and cleared of stored cars
- keep the double track open from Wann to Relay, instead of clogged with freight
- rebuild track from Springfield south to Alton

Stations:
- more parking at all locations with lights and security
- Alton station needs a rebuild
- Springfield is getting rebuilt
- Bloomington/Normal is too small
- Hopefully the new St. Louis station will be a boost
- Consider building a new station near I-270 in Mitchell, Illinois (north of Granite City about five miles); such a station would attract many people from north county St. Louis.

Signals:
- obviously upgrade the system to 110 mph using whatever technology will do the job

Busses:
- connecting busses to Decatur, Peoria, Jacksonville, Edwardsville, etc.

"Consider building a new station near I-270 in Mitchell, Illinois (north of Granite City about five miles); such a station would attract many people from north county St. Louis."
this was consider 30yrs ago.