Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

The details provided in Table 2-2 demonstrate the wide range of routes and service levels
that encompass the state-supported routes component of Amtrak’s system. The shortest statesupported
route is the Milwaukee-Chicago Hiawatha Service, 86 miles in length, while the
longest is the New York-Charlotte Carolinian at just over 700 miles total. For some routes in
Table 2-2, the corridor length reflects the entire distance covered by trains as reported in the
timetable while in some corridors, major city pairs are located within the corridor separated by a
shorter distance than what is shown. For example, the Pacific Surfliner route from San Luis
Obispo to San Diego includes the 128-mile segment between Los Angeles and San Diego,
between which most of the corridor’s 26 daily trains operate. Frequencies on state-supported
trains vary from a single daily train in each direction on eight of the routes to 32 daily departures
on the Sacramento-Oakland-San Jose Capitol Corridor.
In FFY 2008, contracts between Amtrak and the states for the operation of statesupported
intercity passenger rail service provided $164.5 million in revenue to Amtrak,
representing approximately 7 percent of the company’s total revenue (16). Among participating
states, California’s operating contract with Amtrak in FFY 2008 was valued at $74 million,
representing the largest contract for passenger rail services between Amtrak and a state (11).
The contract values for the other partner states were not made available to researchers by Amtrak
due to the proprietary nature of the information. Funding provided by the states to support
intercity passenger rail is primarily from general revenue funds or federally designated grants to
the states, although some states utilize gasoline tax, vehicle registration, or specialty license plate
revenues to support service (17).
Past Studies of State-Supported Rail Corridors
The literature review element of this study included a comprehensive review of past
studies of state-supported passenger rail corridors. In addition to library catalog and internet
searches, each state that supported passenger rail service at the time of the review was contacted
to identify existing studies. Of the 14 states that support passenger rail service, 10 states reported
involvement in, or knowledge of, one or more studies of passengers on its routes that included an
on-board survey component. The states of Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Vermont indicated to
researchers that no such studies of their routes had been undertaken. Note that the states of
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