December 9, 2024 - TRA Newswire -

Despite having fewer coaches and sleeping cars available for service, Amtrak's Texas Eagle service increased in ridership and revenue for the fiscal year that ended October 31st. 

The Heartland Flyer, a partnered service of the Texas and Oklahoma Department of Transportation carried an additional 8,000 passengers on the one daily round trip from Fort Worth to Oklahoma City.

Ticket revenue was up 7% on the daily train that serves cities from San Antonio and Austin north to Fort Worth-Dallas, East Texas and points north to Chicago. Ridership also took an upswing of 11% comparing 2023 to 2024.

Comparing pre-pandemic 2019 to 2024, passengers paid more per ticket and that drove up revenue on the Texas Eagle by 18%. The long distance train ended up as one of the bright stars in revenue despite the fact that a second sleeping car and a third coach car were cut due to equipment shortages.

At Texas stations, Fort Worth Central Station saw the most activity with 107,566 passengers passing through for the year. San Antonio riders totaled 53,039; Dallas saw 49,196 followed closely by Longview with 44,876 and Austin with 32,831. Fort Worth and San Antonio served two trains and the other stations one train daily.

Tiny Mineola, Texas with a population of 5,119 in East Texas had 6,390 passengers pass through its station.

Ridership on the Texas Eagle, since 2019, was only up a paltry 1% due to reduced seats and sleeping car space available. The increased demand resulted in frequent sellouts, and passengers traveling intrastate in Texas often met with Sold Out messages on the Amtrak website. 

Nationally, Amtrak achieved an all-time ridership record in Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24), with 32.8 million riders as demand for passenger rail service continues to grow in markets across the country.

Amtrak, whose operating budget is always based on the whims of Congress, is in dire need of new equipment as most of its cars are reaching end of life. Full dining service has yet to be restored on the Texas Eagle along with a promised Sightseer Lounge, although TRA understands that announcements are due to be made in the near future.

The Heartland Flyer, that serves Fort Worth and Gainesville in Texas, makes stops at Ardmore and several other Oklahoma towns on its daily roundtrip to Oklahoma City. That train went from 72,379 passengers to 80, 371 comparing 2023 to 2024, an increase of 11%. That means some 50,000 vehicles were not in traffic on Interstate 35, and instead those occupants were passengers on the Heartland Flyer. 

 Photo credit: Texas Rail Advocates