Rail travel is booming in America

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES are rarely known for the quality of their TikTok output. Most avoid the network entirely, preferring X, Elon Musk’s social-media site. An exception is Amtrak, America’s national railway firm. Its posts can get hundreds of thousands of views. One popular recent video featured an employee pulling plastic covers off seats in a new train carriage, to the sound of Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. The train is the “next-gen” Acela, launched on August 28th, which travels between Boston and Washington, DC. The choice of music—the “anthem of Europe”—hints at Amtrak’s message: America too now has some European-style trains.

The launch of the new Acela rolling stock, despite being several years late, comes at a particularly hopeful moment for Amtrak. In the nine months to July, 28.6m people took a train ride, a 6% increase on the same period last year. That puts the firm comfortably on track this financial year to record the most journeys in its 54-year history. Its fare revenue grew by 11% in the year to June. Amtrak is also not the only company providing inter-city passenger rail services in America. In Florida Brightline, a private firm which runs trains between Miami and Orlando, increased its passenger numbers by 11% over the past year, to 1.8m rides. Trains are back in fashion. Can it last?

There are several reasons why Americans may be returning to the rails, says Roger Harris, Amtrak’s president. There is, he says, “a greater interest in passenger rail, especially in the younger generation”. Hence the TikToks. But he also cites growing congestion on the roads, more painful airport experiences and population growth in city centres near stations. Amtrak itself has made improvements too. More trains are running, particularly on routes that sell out often, such as from New York to Washington. The firm is also doing more with what it has. It has embraced clever pricing, with discounts used to sell seats on emptier trains, while passengers on the busiest services are squeezed for more.

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