Bay Area, California Commuters Embracing Amtrak
SAN JOSE (KCBS/AP) - High-speed rail is still years away in California, but an increasing number of commuters are already riding the regular rails. New numbers show that ridership levels are surging after a few years of declines.
Amtrak California, the state partnership with the national passenger rail corporation, carried about 5.1 million of the 27.1 million passengers who took Amtrak trains nationwide in 2009. California spends about $90 million a year on operating subsidies.
California's main Amtrak intercity routes are the Capitol Corridor, San Joaquin and Pacific Surfliner.
Ridership on the Capital Corridor that runs between San Jose and the Sacramento area was up 10.6 percent last November, and the San Joaquin and Pacific Surfliner routes now rank among the five busiest rail routes in the nation.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
Cindy Conn said her husband started taking the train from San Jose last September to commute to his new job in Oakland.
"We went to the 511.org website and used it as a tool to plan his trip," said Conn. "That's when we discovered that you could take Amtrak from San Jose to Oakland, and the station is right by where he works, so it works out really well."
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, increased reliability also contributed to the increase in ridership, with trains leaving and arriving on time.
The Capital Corridor hopes to draw even more passengers by adding Wi-Fi to trains in a few months, and by using even faster trains, up to 90-miles-per-hour, once an advanced train control system is added in a few years.
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