By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. passenger railroad Amtrak said on Monday it will boost passenger services on the East Coast as it aims to double ridership nationwide by 2040.
The railroad is increasing Northeast Regional service between Boston and Washington by as much as 20% on weekdays and will add 1 million additional seats over the next year. The service topped pre-pandemic ridership by 8% in the three months ending Sept. 30 and was up 29% for the 12 months ending Sept. 30 to 9.2 million.
Congress approved $66 billion in funding for rail projects as part of a massive infrastructure bill in 2021, with $22 billion dedicated to Amtrak and $36 billion made available for grants.
On Sunday congressional negotiators said they had agreed on $2.42 billion for Amtrak operations for the current budget year, rejecting a proposal by House Republicans to cut Amtrak's annual funding by 64%.
Amtrak passenger trips nationwide were up 24% to 28 million in the 12 months ending Sept. 30.
The railroad wants to break even and double total ridership to 66 million by 2040. Its passenger numbers grew 45% from 2003 to 2019 to 32.3 million.
In November the White House announced $16.4 billion in new funding for 25 passenger rail projects on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor, which is the busiest U.S. rail corridor with 800,000 daily trips in a region that represents 20% of the U.S. economy.
The trains carry five times more passengers than all flights between Washington and New York, the White House said.
Amtrak said last year that half of the 46 states it serves have minimal service. Florida, Ohio and Arizona, the Mountain West and Gulf Coast are served by long distance trains that provide no more than one round trip a day.