By Ron Thaniel
April 19, 2010

Amtrak President and CEO Joe Boardman announced on March 19 that he is creating a new high'speed rail department to pursue opportunities to expand high'speed rail operations. The department will work on the planning and development activities that will allow Amtrak to significantly increase operating speeds above 150 mph on the Northeast Corridor.

The announcement also states that the railroad “will also pursue partnerships with states and others in the passenger rail industry to develop federally-designated high'speed rail corridors such as the new projects moving forward in California and Florida.”

In Florida, grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) will go toward the creation of a new high'speed rail corridor that connects Tampa Bay, Orlando, Miami and other communities in central and south Florida. In California, funding from ARRA will go toward the construction of a new, electrically powered high'speed rail system of 800 miles serving major population centers from San Francisco and Sacramento to Los Angeles and San Diego with over 300 trains per day.

Amtrak announced on April 8 that it is on pace to break its annual ridership record carrying more than 13.6 million passengers between the first two quarters of FY 2010 (October 2009 - March 2010). This is an increase of 4.3 percent increase over the same period the prior year and is about 100,000 more riders than the 13.5 million posted in FY 2008, which turned out to be Amtrak’s best ridership year in history when the railroad carried 28.7 million passengers.

Comparing March 2010 to March 2009, ridership increased by 13.5 percent to a record 2.47 million passengers for the month. In addition, every single Amtrak route carried more passengers with several experiencing double-digit growth.