Ridership on Vermont’s two Amtrak lines has been close to what the company expected after service resumed last month, a spokesperson said, adding that the Covid-19 Delta variant likely has not had much of an impact on passenger bookings.
The Vermonter, which runs between St. Albans City and Washington, D.C., carried 4,203 passengers in July after service resumed on the 19th, according to Amtrak data. That’s about 43% of the total July 2019 ridership, which was 9,806 passengers.
And 2,570 passengers rode the Ethan Allen Express, which runs between Rutland and New York City, after service resumed in July. That’s about 44% of the 5,875 total passengers who rode the line in July 2019.
“Considering both routes in total,” Amtrak spokesperson Beth Toll wrote in an email, “July actuals were very close to our last pre-restoration estimate.”
Amtrak has not seen a large increase in cancellations nationwide amid the outbreak of the Delta variant, though more people are buying tickets that are fully refundable, Toll said.
Train stations across Vermont drew sold-out railcars and scores of trackside celebrants when Amtrak passenger service resumed in July after a 16-month absence.
Jake Tran, who owns Nest Coffee and Bakery in Essex Junction, just down the street from the Amtrak station, said he’s noticed “a lot of new faces” in the store since the trains started running again.
He recalled meeting a couple this past weekend who had just finished a 200-mile bicycle tour and was getting ready to take the train home to New York City.
As Tran spoke with a VTDigger reporter on the phone Friday morning, a train passed by and his voice was at times muffled by the blaring horn.
“It kind of gives it a sense of place,” he said of having Amtrak service in the village.
Up in St. Albans City, the Hampton Inn near the Amtrak station has “definitely seen an uptick” in guests coming off the train, General Manager Maureen Brown said.
The Vermonter’s crew members also stay at the hotel, Brown said, and she has heard them say they feel the train has been busy.
Toni Hamburg Clithero, the state Agency of Transportation’s program manager for Amtrak grants, said she is encouraged by the recent ridership figures.
“We’re very optimistic right now,” she said. “It looks like there’s a lot of interest in our trains.”
The state’s next Amtrak target is opening an extension of the Ethan Allen Express north from Rutland to new stops in Middlebury, Vergennes and Burlington.
Asked about the status of the project, Clithero said it remains on track to be completed in the first half of 2022.
The line’s new northern terminus is set to be Union Station in downtown Burlington.
Plans call for trains to be stored at the railyard just south of the waterfront.
