In addition to these figures, there were another 675,966 Amtrak passengers who passed through North Carolina on there way to other states.
Cool. 3705 total riders per day. How many of those were repeat riders. That is, how many of the 268137 riders for Raleigh and Charlotte (734 per day) were commuters etc.
Do we really want to subsidize a whole trsain service for less than 800 people? How many people drove on the roads of Charlotte and Raleigh during that same time? Perhaps 200,000 per day? (I'm guessing it's probably much more).
I'd bet that the interstates through those towns get more traffic per week (riders) than amtrak brings through all year.
Now, How many people flew into those two towns in that year? And note that those who were not stopping in NC did not require any dedicated real estate while passing through (like your 675,966 pass through riders did)
Either way, his priorities are blind to the growing public demand for energy efficient passenger rail that is arising from ever increasing petroleum costs.
What growing public demand? The only thing I see are politicians looking for more tax dollars to build financially unfeasible toy trains.
Other than yourself I know of NO ONE who wants more trains. Not a single person. Including most model railroaders I know. Even they recognize that the finacials just don't work in this country.
Get with the 21st century...Trains are an expensive nostalgia for going-senile and going-senile wannabes. Trains are expensive...usually through taxes on people who don’t want them.