Amtrak set a new annual ridership record of 28,716,857 passengers for the fiscal year ending September 30 and collected a record $1.74 billion in ticket revenue, the agency announced.

"We thank every passenger for choosing Amtrak to meet their intercity travel needs," said President/CEO Joseph Boardman. "More and more people see passenger rail as a way to get to where they need to go, and when our front line employees put them first, it helps to bring passengers back for another trip."

A year-over-year comparison of FY 2010 to FY 2009 shows total Amtrak ridership grew 5.7 percent, or about 1.55 million passengers, and all Amtrak business lines experienced growth including the Northeast Corridor (up 4.3 percent), long-distance trains (up 6.6 percent), and state-supported and other short-distance routes (up 6.5 percent).

Over the same period, ticket revenue increased 9 percent, or more than $140 million.

Factors that contributed to success in FY 2010 include a moderately improved economic environment allowing some recovery of business travel along the Northeast Corridor, the increased appeal and popularity of rail travel, effective marketing campaigns, the introduction of Wi-Fi on the high-speed Acela Express trains and sustained high gasoline prices, according to Amtrak.