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Amtrak’s overall ridership continues to climb past the pre-pandemic heights, and most routes in Chronicle Media coverage area and the state in general contributed to that trend.

In November, the national passenger railroad company released the ridership numbers for its 2025 fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2024, and ended on Sept. 30, 2025. The station-specific ridership figures weren’t available by deadline, but Amtrak did release ridership numbers. They showed increased ridership for routes serving Central Illinois, Metro East, collar countries and Kendall County. And while the overall ridership increased on trains serving north suburban Glenview, there are some declines.

According to Amtrak, FY2025 saw 34.5 million customer trips, a 5.1 percent increase over FY2024 and an all-time record since the public company was founded in 1971.

The Lincoln Service route runs between Chicago and St. Louis four times a day in both directions. It makes stops at Summit and Joliet in the Chicagoland area, Alton in Metro East and Normal’s Uptown station in Central Illinois, as well as several other stops in between — most notably in Springfield.

In FY2025, Lincoln Service ridership went up by about 1.1 percent compared to last year, going from 586,170 a year.

Texas Eagle long-distance train uses the same tracks as Lincoln Service between Chicago and St. Louis, and stops at all stations except Summit, adding a fifth, midday option. Its ridership increased by 14.3 percent. While Amtrak’s report didn’t show much of that ridership falls in the Chicago-St. Louis section, the National Association of Railroad Passengers analysis of FY2024 ridership patterns released in early December suggests that it was significant. It broke down ridership by “station pairs” and that found that, on Texas Eagle, Chicago-St. Louis trips came in first, with Chicago-Normal trips coming in second and Chicago-Alton trips coming in third.

As of FY2024, the most recent fiscal year for which station-level ridership data is available, Uptown station was the third-busiest station in Illinois, after Chicago Union Station and Champaign’s Illinois Terminal. Joliet and Alton stations were seventh and eighth busiest, respectively.

Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr travel between Chicago and Quincy, provide two trips a day. They stop at several Western Illinois towns, including Plano. While they serve Naperville and La Grange Metra stations, under the current schedule, trains heading to Quincy can both pick up and drop off passengers at those stations, but trains heading to Chicago can’t pick up passengers at those stations unless they’re transferring to another Amtrak train.

In FY2025, the two trains saw a collective 3.1 percent increase, going from 141,722 riders a year to 146,049 riders a year.

The Hiawatha train operates between Chicago and Milwaukee five to six times a day. It used to operate six to seven times of the day, but effective May 2024, one of the trips in each direction was extended to St. Paul, Minnesota, becoming a separate route called the Borealis.

Long-distance Empire Builder train uses that same track as Borealis between Chicago and St. Paul. But while it stops in Glenview and Milwaukee, it doesn’t transport passengers between those stations and Chicago unless they are transferring to or from another train.

Hiawatha and Borealis don’t have those limits. NARP analysis found that, while most riders boarding at Glenview went to Milwaukee, Chicago-Glenview pair accounted for the second-highest portion of all ridership. Before the pandemic, Hiawatha riders in Glenview told Chronicle Media that, while Metra’s Milwaukee District North Line is cheaper and more frequent, they take the Amtrak train because it’s faster.

Hiawatha’s ridership dropped by 5 percent between FY2024 and FY2025, going from 665,279 to 631,990. But given that two of its trips became Borealis part-way through 2024, it is hard to make an apples-to-apples comparison. Borealis’ ridership more than doubled, going from 88,444 riders to 212,909 riders, but given that it was only operating for part of FY2024, it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, either.

Empire Builder’s ridership dropped by 6 percent, going from 387,953 to 364,495 riders a year.

Amtrak spokesperson Marc Magliari said that the company doesn’t believe that Borealis’ ridership gains came at Hiawatha’s or Empire Builder’s expense. Rather, he said that Hiawatha’s losses had to do with equipment shortages.

In March 2025, Amtrak withdrew Horizon rail cars from service after several of them were found to have corrosion issues. While all Midwestern state-supported routes were affected, Hiawatha and Borealis used them more than others. Although Amtrak was able to find replacements to keep the trains going, the overall pool of railcars it can draw from is smaller pool of cars, some of which have fewer seats than Horizons did.

Illinois, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin departments of transportation have ordered new cars to upgrade the fleet, but not all the ordered cars have entered service. Amtrak also leased railcars to temporarily fill in gaps.

All of this, Magliari said, meant that Amtrak struggled to provide enough railcars to meet the growing demand.

In a statement to the media, Amtrak touted customer service improvements system-wide, including improvements in wi-fi and doing more to keep riders up to date on why trains are delayed and how long the delays might last. It also touted Borealis ridership numbers, which are above the 125,000-135,000 riders a year projections.

“Amtrak’s operational success is not just about moving more people, it’s about moving them better,” said Amtrak President Roger Harris. “These results show what’s possible when we lead with purpose. By prioritizing reliability and the customer experience, we’re laying the foundation for the next generation of passenger rail in America.”