8/3/2010
Buoyed by the addition of the Piedmont’s new mid-day train, 10,000 more passengers traveled on North Carolina’s Amtrak service in June than during the same period in 2009. The New Piedmont service between Raleigh and Charlotte began on June 5.
During its first month of operation, the mid-day service helped increase June ridership on the Piedmont trains by nearly 200 percent vs. June 2009 from 5,258 to 15,426, according to the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The new service is expected to attract 43,000 new passengers in its first year.
Overall for the period between October 2009 and June 2010, Piedmont ridership is up 26 percent at 65,956 vs. 52,347 during the comparable year-ago period.
