Amtrak
Headquarters: 60
Massachusetts Avenue, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: 202-906-3000
Employees: 18,000
President and CEO: Joseph Boardman
Website: http://www.amtrak.com
Career Page
Amtrak operates the nation's passenger rail system, providing train service to more than 500 destinations in 46 states on a 21,000-mile network of routes.
Amtrak operates over 300 trains a day at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour.
Amtrak earned $2.35 billion in revenues in fiscal 2009, up from $1.7 billion the previous year. The railroad also served 27.1 million passengers in fiscal 2009 - the second most in history.
Amtrak operates Acela Express, a high-speed train service between Boston and Washington D.C.
The Boston-New York-Washington portion of the Northeast Corridor carried 9,946,027 passengers in FY 2009 on Acela Express, Regional Service or other trains. Three other corridors had ridership that topped one million or more: Pacific Surfliner Service (San Diego-Los Angeles-San Luis Obispo, 2,592,996), Capitol Corridor Service (San Jose-Oakland-Sacramento-Auburn, 1,599,625) and the Keystone Corridor Service (Harrisburg-Philadelphia-New York City, 1,215,785).
Five other corridors had ridership in excess of a half-million passengers:
- San Joaquin Service (Oakland-Sacramento-Bakersfield): 929,172
- Empire Service (New York-Albany-Niagara Falls): 925,746
- Amtrak Cascades Service (Eugene-Portland-Seattle-Vancouver, B.C.): 740,154
- Hiawatha Service (Chicago-Milwaukee): 738,231
- Lincoln Service (Chicago-St. Louis): 506,235
Amtrak is a made-for-profit corporation,
but receives subsidies from the federal government to keep it
operating. Amtrak's preferred stock is owned by the federal government
and members of Amtrak's board of directors are appointed by the
President of the United States himself.
Amtrak also receives money from some states
outside of the Northeast Corridor.
The train service has never been profitable and needs funding to upgrade stations and tracks.
Created on May 1, 1971, the company was
formally established as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.
Amtrak stands for America, travel, and track.
The week of Thanksgiving Tuesday
to Monday is typically Amtrak's busiest travel period of
the year. The railroad handled nearly 600,000 passengers last
year during the holiday week.
Updated July 6, 2010
