Amtrak's August ridership gained 223,000 rides compared to last August. Ridership over the last 12 months now stands at 36.74 million rides. Annual operating deficit continues to hover around $500 million, with total cost recovery at 89% and fare revenues covering 80% of route expenses across the network.
Amtrak improved July ridership by 344,000 compared to July 2025, a roughly 11% gain.
Key Stats
-Annual ridership for Amtrak (August 2025-July 2026) is now 36,517,000 rides. Amtrak's FY24 service plan had a goal of reaching 37 million rides by FY28, and are on pace to reach that goal 2 years early.
-Fare revenue was up $32 million, with total revenue up just $4 million and expenses down $12 million. Difference in fare & total revenue mostly due to less state support revenue being collected this July.
-154K rides gained on the NEC, 180K gained on state supported routes, and 10K gained on long-distance routes. Pacific Surfliner led all routes with a gain of 110,800.
-The Acela roared to life in July with a ridership gain of 58,600. So far Acela ridership had been down this fiscal year, now it's up.
-Passenger miles increased by 54 million, and seat miles increased by 56 million. Load factor crossed over 55% for the 1st time.
Race to the WH moved South Dakota from Safe R to Likely R. The tipping point state for a filibuster-proof Dem majority would be Louisiana, with a projected margin of R+15.7% and a 5% chance of a Dem victory.
Note: Race to the WH has shifted Florida to Likely R since this page was copied.
Updated estimates on how many candidates each party is fielding in state legislative elections this year. Democrats maintain their large lead, and with most filing periods and primaries over there won't be a ton of movement after today.
Data shows financials from July 2025 to June 2026. Routes are divided by service line, and only fare revenues are counted instead of total revenue, that way state subsidies are not included.
Gains are for June 2026 vs June 2025.
Annual ridership now at 35,889,000. Operating deficit down to $460 million annually, with $30 million shaved off this month.
Amtrak has added over 1 million rides between March & May, its best 3-month stretch since March-May 2024. It is also on track to hit its FY28 target of 37 million annual rides early, currently pacing to reach it this fall/winter (early FY27).
Wisconsin applied for $218 million in federal funds to support Amtrak expansion to Madison. Likely seeking funds through CRISI, which closed for applications yesterday and has $2 billion available.
Caltrain reported 1,188,972 rides taken in May, a 21% increase vs May 2025 and 73% recovered to May 2019 levels. BART is also up 12% on ridership based on the preliminary daily counts.
**EDIT: Sorry about the title, this is actually data for April.
Key Points from the April report.
-Amtrak added 107K rides on the NEC, 178K on state routes, and 20K on long distance routes. They also have a new unofficial record of 35,591,000 rides annually.
-Operating margin improved by $7.4 million to -$490.7 million annually. All 3 route groups improved financially.
-Capacity began to increase again, but ridership still improved at a faster rate. 56 million passenger miles added vs 43 million seat miles added. Load factor up to 54.87%.
-State supported routes now fully recovered to 2019 levels. Long distance at 98% recovery.
Top Ridership Gains
Northeast Regional- 110,600
Pacific Surfliner- 75,000
Keystone Service- 23,200
Capitol Corridor- 22,100
Mardi Gras Service- 13,200 (new service)
Cascades- 11,000
Top Ridership Losses
DC-Richmond NER- 13,800
DC-Norfolk NER- 9,600
Lake Shore Limited- 3,200
Acela- 2,800
Cardinal- 1,900
**Virginia NER's affected by Long Bridge disruptions
I’ve got an extra ticket to the Indy 500 I won’t be needing if anyone wants to use it.
A lot of states have gone through primary filing since I made my first post 2 months ago, so I thought I'd share the updated version. This is looking at how many legislative seats each party is contesting in each state. This only includes states that have finished primary filing, and are subject to change based on write-in candidates & removals from the ballot.
Data is from the FTA’s 2024 agency profiles, and is for each agency’s 2024 fiscal year. Grouped by mode.
An in case people ask, the revenue column is only counting fare revenues, so not including state support payments. Also, Rev/PM and Exp/PM are calculating revenue and expenses per passenger mile.
Key Details
-Yes, Amtrak turned an operating profit of $23.7 million, a $96.8 million improvement over March 2025. This was driven by 2 items: a $21.5 million increase in ticket revenue and a $60.6 million decrease in advertising and sales expenses.
-Looking at network-specific finances, the routes generated $246 million in ticket revenue (without state support payments) and $243.6 million in expenses. The NEC ran a cost recovery of 174%, with state routes at 61% and long distance at 72%.
-The NEC added 148K rides, state routes added 281K, and long distance routes decreased by 17K.
-Capacity remains an underlying problem. Passenger miles increased by 32 million while seat miles decreased by 24 million, pushing the load factor up to a new high of 54.6%. Train miles decreased again, pushing annual train miles to a 2-year low.
-Annual operating deficit is down to $498.1 million, a new post-Covid low.