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Amtrak traffic grows By Scott Joiner The number of Amtrak passengers riding the rails through East Williamson County continues to rise, according to the company's recent passenger statistics. “Ridership is up and has been up for every train in the system for the past four years,” spokesman Marc Magliari said. In 2006, the number of passengers from Taylor rose by 661 from 3,235 to 3,896, the report states. “We definitely have plans to continue service in Taylor with both our daily train, The Texas Eagle, and our daytime corridor trains,” he said. Magliari said Amtrak operates one shorter-distance train, the Heartland Flyer, daily from Fort Worth to Gainesville and Oklahoma City and two long-distance trains through Texas, the Sunset Limited, which runs tri-weekly with stops in Orlando, New Orleans and Los Angeles via Houston, San Antonio and El Paso, and the Texas Eagle, which runs daily with stops in Chicago, Dallas and San Antonio with tri-weekly through car service via the Sunset Limited to Los Angeles. “A lot of people enjoy traveling by our trains because the fares are moderately priced depending on where you want to go,” he said. “If you want to go from Taylor to San Antonio, you can pick up the train in Taylor and pay $16 to $32 each way. If you were traveling to Chicago, you could pick up the train in Taylor for a $113 to $222 coach ticket each way.” Magliari said although rail travel's primary competition is automobiles, fluctuating monthly sales do not hurt the company. “... All forms of travel - rail, air, auto, waterway - receive some sort of grant support of varying amounts from the federal government so it's not really a matter of competing with each other for customers,” he said. However, Magliari said transportation by train can offer passengers a more enjoyable trip than other travel services. “Our seats are much wider than any other form of transportation minus the luxury cars so you have more room to move about,” he said. “If you are traveling overnight, you can upgrade to a sleeping car and not have to waste time stopping and staying at a hotel or motel. Most importantly, you have a constant change of scenery, which a lot of people enjoy.” Dr. Bill Pollard, a member of the grassroots group Texas Eagle Marketing and Performance Organization, said he thinks ridership in Texas will continue to grow in the future. “It's just a good transportation alternative to having to fight traffic on I-35,” he said. “Malvern, Ark. and Taylor, Texas are the last two stations on route before reaching St. Louis that have not done any upgrading or modernization of their stations so we're anxious to see some improvement there. “When a station is upgraded you see ridership improve significantly because it brings awareness to the community about train travel.” In a previous interview, Capital Area Rural Transportation System Executive Director David Marsh said negotiations between CARTS and the Union Pacific Corporation to build an intermodal terminal in Taylor were terminated by the company, which owns the track in Taylor. The Texas Department of Transportation had awarded CARTS a grant covering about 80 percent of the cost of a $1.2 million depot renovation project, Marsh said. The City of Taylor was to pay the other 20 percent. The terminal would have provided a base for both bus service and Amtrak passenger trains. “Right now we're retooling and reevaluating sites on where to build,” he said. Information on routes, schedules and ticket prices for the Texas Eagle can be found on the Web site www.amtrak.com.
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