US rail travel likely to become more popular

With more hassle, lines and delays at airports, an increasing number of US citizens are turning back to rail travel and this has already positively affected Amtrak, America’s national railway operator. Many at Amtrak believe that rail travel is bound to become more popular with Americans not only because some prefer to skip the line-ups at airports, but also because oil’s current $100 per barrel rate on the world market is likely to cause airlines to raise their prices. In the case of nearly all North American carriers, this already occurred early in the Autumn, when airfares increased in tandem across the board. While the airline industry’s own problems may positively effect the rail industry, this form of transportation has some successes of its own to celebrate. For example, various state legislatures are interested in expanding railway networks in their jurisdictions, and the US congress seems to have warmed to this idea as well. Railway service is expected to expand, provided that Washington agrees to fund about 80% of the project.

The majority of American voters appear to support plans for the federal government to provide Amtrak with subsidies in order to improve railway service. Although President George Bush has been skeptical of such suggestions, rising passenger traffic figures may give him, as well as his successor reason to pause and reconsider. More than 25.8 million Americans used Amtrak’s trains to travel across the country in last fiscal year, which represents 1.5 million more passengers than in the previous period. Moreover, most experts now predict that these passenger numbers will continue to rise until 2011, at which point massive expansion of the rail network may be necessary in order to keep up with increasing demand.

www.amtrak.com