Passenger railroads see ridership jump as gas prices climb : NPR

Travelers board an Acela train at Union Station in Washington, D.C. in November, 2024. Amtrak reported a 5% increase in ridership in March compared to the year before.

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Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — As the average price of gas climbs above four dollars a gallon, ridership on U.S. passenger railroads is surging, too.

Amtrak, the national passenger railroad, reported a five percent increase in ridership in March compared with a year ago. And Brightline, the privately-owned railroad in Florida, says ridership soared more than 20% for the same month.

“It usually would be shorter to drive, but the gas prices are high,” said Joshua Newman of Washington, D.C., as he waited to board an Amtrak train for the first time in his life at Union Station this week. Newman, 20, was on his way to visit friends at a festival in North Carolina. “I would rather take the train, instead of having to actually worry about the other prices that come with driving.”

It generally takes a lot to get Americans out of their cars. But the average nationwide price of a gallon of gas rose this week to $4.30, the most since the war in Iran began two months ago. And for Dorothy English, that is simply too much to pay.

“It’s really ridiculous,” said English, who recently drove up the East Coast. “Let me tell you, I actually spent $140 to fill up, from Florida to New York. I mean, like, every time we went to another state, we were filling it up.”

This week, English decided to take the train from New York to North Carolina instead, with a layover in Washington.

“I’m not going to pay that much to travel anymore,” she said. “The train is cheaper. So I said, let me take the cheaper way out.”

Amtrak, which is coming off two years of record ridership, says it has seen surges like this before.

“We typically see some shift to rail as fuel prices rise, and we’re seeing that pattern here as well,” Amtrak spokesperson Beth Toll said in a statement to NPR. “Continued ridership growth underscores the essential role rail plays in connecting communities along the Northeast Corridor and across the nation.”

For Brightline, which has been serving Orlando for less than three years, March’s numbers represent a new high-water mark.

“March ’26 was the best month in our history by every measure,” said Patrick Goddard, the CEO of Brightline Florida.

There are probably several reasons for the jump in ridership, Goddard says, including long wait times at airport security checkpoints and lower ticket prices. But Goddard says the cost of gas is part of the mix, too.

“I think gas prices were a factor for the Miami-Orlando trip,” Goddard said in an interview. “You know, when guests do the math of gas, tolls and then parking — if they’re going to Orlando, they’re parking at a theme park for anywhere from two to five days — Brightline typically wins.”

It’s too early to say whether Amtrak and Brightline can retain these passengers when gas prices drop again. But that doesn’t appear likely to happen anytime soon.