<
https://www.route-fifty.com/infrastructure/2023/03/all-aboard-passenger-rail-rolling-along-atlantic-coast/384481/>
"There’s a passenger rail boom happening on the Eastern Seaboard, and it’s not
where you might think.
Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor may be the busiest rail corridor in the country,
but it didn’t set record-high ridership numbers last year. That honor goes to
Virginia and North Carolina, a fact that has emboldened both purple states to
make aggressive plans for further expanding their networks with the help of new
federal infrastructure grants.
The states had recovered nearly all of their pre-pandemic traffic in the last
federal fiscal year, which ended in September. That stands in stark contrast to
the Amtrak system overall, which was still nearly 30% lower than its fiscal
2019 ridership. And state-supported routes—like the ones Virginia and North
Carolina run—all around the country fared even worse.
Recently, the two Southern states have posted several months of all-time-high
ridership levels.
“Last year we had the highest ridership calendar year that we’ve ever had in
our 32-year history of providing intercity railroad service here in North
Carolina,” said Jason Orthner, the head of the rail division at the North
Carolina Department of Transportation. The agency set new records for its NC By
Train service again in January and February, too. “As we went back to full
service in ’21, we started to see that folks were really choosing intercity
passenger rail as a productive, safe mode of travel.”
The growth comes as states across the country are submitting to the Federal
Railroad Administration corridors where they want to expand passenger service.
Virginia and North Carolina will each be making the case for more investment in
building out their local routes, and they’re working together on a proposal to
build more capacity along a line linking Charlotte, North Carolina, to
Washington, D.C. Those trains would run through Raleigh and Richmond, as well.
So, what’s been the key to their success?"
Via
The Fixer April 19, 2023:
<
https://reasonstobecheerful.world/california-farmers-atmospheric-river-recharge-aquifers/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
