Trains Are Quietly Winning Travelers Back, and Amtrak’s Numbers Show It

A new industry roundup argues that train travel is booming worldwide, driven by higher jet fuel costs that have pushed up airfares and by travelers’ environmental concerns. The headline data point on this side of the Atlantic is Amtrak, which carried 23.9 million passengers in fiscal 2026, up 6 percent from a year earlier.

In Europe, Deutsche Bahn says it runs more than 320 international services every day, about 20 percent more than five years ago, and expects prices to stay stable. Railbookers reports that 2026 bookings are up 186 percent for the United Kingdom and 98 percent for Italy, with triple-digit growth for France and Germany.

New competition is also on the horizon. Virgin has said it plans 20 daily rail services linking London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030, using trains up to 300 kilometers per hour and adding nearly 7.5 million cross-Channel seats a year. In Canada, a proposed high-speed Toronto to Quebec City line faces political opposition.

Surveys back up the mood. A 2025 Hitachi Rail poll of 11,000 people found almost half planned to travel more by train and less by plane over the next five years. For travelers, the lesson is to book popular rail routes early, since growing demand can mean fuller trains and tighter fare options.

Sources: Open Jaw