Charleston's Amtrak station experienced an increase in ridership in fiscal 2015, despite an oil train derailment in Fayette County that disrupted Cardinal service for much of February.
From Oct. 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2015, a total of 9,844 passengers boarded or de-trained at the MacCorkle Avenue station, an increase of 169 passengers, or 1.75 percent, from fiscal 2014, according to figures from the national rail passenger service.
That's despite the Feb. 16 derailment at Mount Carbon of a CSX train carrying 107 tanker cars of Bakken Shale crude oil, which closed the CSX mainline for 11 days and forced the cancellation of a total of 10 Cardinal trains.
Charleston was one of two West Virginia stations to see an increase in ridership in 2015. Martinsburg, served by two Capitol Limited trains daily, experienced a 4.9 percent increase in ridership to 10,309 passengers.
Overall, statewide Amtrak ridership fell 2.9 percent in 2015, to 54,077 passengers, as all other stations on the Cardinal route experienced ridership declines.
Prince, serving Beckley, and Hinton each saw drops of nearly 12 percent, with 2,925 passengers at Prince and 7,506 at Hinton.
Huntington experienced a 7 percent drop in ridership, going from 11,515 to 10,706 passengers in 2015.
White Sulphur Springs had a 1 percent decline, from 5,165 to 5,107 passengers. The two whistle stops on the route saw ridership declines of more than 20 percent, with 432 passengers at Alderson, and 295 passengers at Thurmond, the smallest town in America with regularly scheduled passenger rail service.
Meanwhile, Montgomery's 2015 ridership of 639 was down just two passengers from 2014, while Harpers Ferry on the Capitol Limited route gained one passenger from 2014, for total ridership of 6,314.
Chuck Riecks of Charleston, vice chairman for government relations for the National Association of Railroad Passengers, and co-chairman of the local Friends of the Cardinal group, said he was surprised Charleston ridership increased despite the February shutdown.
"It's interesting it showed an increase even though we lost 10 runs," he said. "Thankfully, they were, shall we say, in the slow time of the year. It would have been much worse if it occurred in a peak period."
According to Amtrak's Monthly Performance Report for February, the 10 cancellations resulted in a 37 percent drop in ridership on the Cardinal, which carried a total of 4,418 passengers on the New York to Chicago route, compared to 6,512 passengers in February 2014.
In its peak month of July, the Cardinal had a total of 10,845 passengers.
Riecks said Charleston ridership figures have been consistent in recent years.
"Charleston's sort of stuck in the 9,500-to-10,500 range," he said, adding, "We never seem to crack the 11,000 mark."
The Cardinal operates three days a week, with east- and westbound trains arriving in Charleston on Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
2015 ridership works out to an average of 32.6 passengers boarding or detraining at Charleston on each Cardinal train.
By comparison, 2015 ridership for other Amtrak stations served only by the Cardinal include: Cincinnati, 12,503; Staunton, Virginia, 6,735; Ashland, Kentucky, 2,581; Maysville, Kentucky, 2,279; Clifton Forge, Virginia, 2,247; South Shore, Kentucky, 1,057; and Connersville, Indiana, 770.
Nationally, Amtrak reported relatively steady ridership for fiscal 2015, with more than 30.8 million passengers, topping 30 million passengers for the fifth consecutive year.
Overall ridership was down 0.1 percent compared to 2014, blamed primarily on service disruptions in the busy Northeast Corridor and on lower gas prices. That included the crash of an Amtrak train in Philadelphia in May that shut down service between Philadelphia and New York City for several days.
Amtrak reported total revenue for the fiscal year of $3.2 billion, down 1 percent from 2014. Ticket sales and other revenues covered more than 91 percent of Amtrak's total operating costs, according to the annual report.
Reach Phil Kabler at philk@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1220, or follow @PhilKabler on Twitter.