2/14/2013

Amtrak Article
Capitol Corridor ridership, revenue results mixed for January

Capitol Corridor and California intercity passenger-rail services continued to show mixed performance results in January.

Capitol Corridor ridership slipped 2.6 percent year over year to 136,201 riders in January, Capitol Corridor Joint Powers Authority Managing Director David Kutrosky said in a prepared statement.

Revenue for the month remained flat with the year-ago period and on-time performance remained at "excellent levels" at 94 percent, he said.

"While we have not received the detailed ridership data for January, we have looked at the data for the first quarter of fiscal-year 2013 (October-December 2012) and noticed significant declines in boardings in two of the three segments of the Capitol Corridor route," Kutrosky said.

Despite the mixed results in the first few months of fiscal-year 2014, authority staff are "evaluating the opportunities to bring ridership back up and above prior year results by reconfiguring the weekday train schedules and slotting trains where ridership demand is high," he said.

Other performance sectors such as revenue, stream operating ratio and on-time performance are holding steady.

"Amtrak has recommitted its resources to improve the performance and availability of passenger-rail vehicles in the Northern California intercity passenger rail fleet," Kutrosky said.

On the Pacific Surfliners, January ridership grew 4.3 percent to 197,077 riders compared with the same period a year ago. San Joaquin posted a 7.3 percent increase in ridership to 89,097 riders.