October sees a large gain in Surfliner ridership

This isn't too surprising however since it was down fairly significantly last October, dropping 7.3% compared to October 2010. Ridership will be going up for sometime simply because of large drops that last year sustained from track work.

Ridership
Surfliner +6.9%
Starlight +9.7%
Capitol Corridor -0.3%
San Joaquin +12.6%
Nationally +0.4%
Metrolink +13.8%
COASTER +10.1%

Ridership declines in September and increases in October for Metrolink and COASTER are partially explained by two fewer weekdays in September but two extra weekdays in October.

Revenue

Surfliner +13.5%
Starlight +8.1%
Capitol Corridor +5.2%
San Joaquin +7.0%
Nationally +3.4%

Surfliner OTP remained above 80% for the second month in a row, averaging 82.5% overall; 92.3% for LOSSAN North and 84.3% for LOSSAN South. This still has a large room for improvement to meet with Metrolink and COASTER OTP even without taking into consideration the stricter metrics for commuter on time performance.

NJT parked equipment in areas forecast to flood

A third of its locomotives and a quarter of its rail cars lost to flood damage as a result.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in damage, massive harm to post-hurricane recovery, and quite possibly billions of dollars in total economic damages, all because a handful of utter fools couldn't pay the proper attention to their jobs and ensure that the equipment was moved to somewhere that was not a predicted flood zone. I am hoping that it was merely a lack of consideration for the hurricane that led to this and not active incompetence that moved equipment from safer areas to these lower lying areas. Words completely fail me in that latter scenario.

Argentina tunnels rail line with history of deadly accidents

This is somewhat older news, but still interesting. It's the same line that had a horrible collision earlier in the year killing 51 people.

There are a couple of standout points to me:
1. It is surprisingly cost-effective as a means of grade separation. The 52 grade crossings for vehicular traffic would, in America, typically cost somewhere around $70 million each, and an additional several million for each pedestrian crossing. Even then, this would not entirely prevent pedestrian strikes or vehicles interfering with train traffic, though admittedly, it likely doesn't matter statistically. Of course, American tunneling costs are also quite a bit higher. I suspect that much of the cost with this project is due to relocating the fifteen stations underground, though building the tunnels large enough to accommodate bilevel trains undoubtedly plays its own part in it.
2. There is an absolutely tremendous amount of traffic on that line. If I'm not mistaken, the ten million passengers per month on that lone 35km line is three times the number of passengers on all California commuter rail lines combined.
3. This also appears to be part of an upgrade for the line in question, renewing its electrification and signaling systems. Currently it appears to be using electric locomotive hauled single level equipment, which heaps even more shame on California's commuter lines. Since the equipment on the line will be sixty years old by the time the tunnels are completed, and aging equipment has been blamed for the earlier collision, I don't think that the double deck height of the tunnel is simply future-proofing: I would be highly surprised were there not to be a double deck EMU contract timed with the new tunnel openings.

Amtrak California stations by average boarding per train

Put this together to see if there might be any relationships that could be gleaned, but to be honest, I'm not seeing one. Still, I'll put it out there in case someone else finds one or otherwise finds it useful. The employed population is taken from those living within 5 miles of the station according to On The Map and station boardings are 2011 data. Because of their close proximity, I merged San Diego Santa Fe and San Diego Old Town Stations together. I strongly suspect that bus boardings are included, which would mean an extra 100-200,000 boardings at Los Angeles and Bakersfield, severely inflating the data for Bakersfield in particular. Each "train per day" is for trains taking passengers on; intermediate stations will have double the train numbers of termini as a result.

	Boardings	Employed population within 5 miles	Trains per day	Boardings per train	Boardings per Kiloperson per daily train
Los Angeles	1,606,121	370,097	18.4	239.8	235.9
Bakersfield	476,767	106,671	6	218.3	744.9
San Diego (including Old Town)	776,606	168,939	11	194.0	417.9
Sacramento	1,175,046	116,849	35.1	92.0	286.5
Stockton (San Joaquin Street)	260,115	82,499	8	89.3	394.1
Fresno	371,875	94,650	12	85.1	327.4
Irvine	664,263	107,151	22	82.9	281.8
Auburn	29,438	17,683	1	80.9	1,664.8
Santa Barbara	317,617	43,789	12	72.7	604.4
San Luis Obispo	101,659	19,583	4	69.8	1,297.8
San Jose	224,756	255,472	9	68.6	97.8
Solana Beach	443,386	49,143	22	55.4	410.1
Fullerton	436,383	267,607	22.3	53.8	73.1
Rocklin	36,329	63,645	2	49.9	285.4
Roseville	67,831	110,139	4	46.6	154.0
Hanford	199,291	22,109	12	45.6	751.2
Anaheim	352,363	283,712	22	44.0	56.5
Emeryville	583,865	157,765	40.1	40.0	92.3
Oceanside	311,834	48,465	22	38.9	292.5
Davis	443,168	27,403	33.1	36.8	488.6
Martinez	446,507	37,159	37.1	33.1	323.9
Oakland	379,851	178,608	35.1	29.7	60.6
San Juan Capistrano	230,481	73,265	21.3	29.7	147.7
Stockton (Downtown)	38,401	82,499	4	26.4	116.4
Merced	114,401	31,098	12	26.2	306.6
Salinas	18,164	55,674	2	25.0	163.1
Goleta	62,310	30,520	7	24.5	291.7
Modesto	104,647	56,166	12	24.0	155.3
Santa Clara	115,989	193,309	14	22.8	42.9
Santa Ana	170,036	249,126	21.3	21.9	32.0
Richmond	276,114	83,814	37.1	20.4	88.8
Suisun-Fairfield	192,471	45,403	29.1	18.2	145.7
Oxnard	78,085	93,732	12	17.9	69.4
Van Nuys	74,163	293,333	12	17.0	21.1
Palm Springs	5,897	14,210	1	16.2	415.0
Riverside	11,679	87,180	2	16.0	67.0
Redding	11,440	30,425	2	15.7	188.0
Ontario	5,422	158,687	1	14.9	34.2
San Bernardino	10,552	117,288	2	14.5	45.0
Paso Robles	10,122	14,064	2	13.9	359.9
Chico	9,843	34,856	2	13.5	141.2
Berkeley	142,510	130,561	29.1	13.5	37.5
Ventura	47,457	27,055	10	13.0	175.4
Needles	8,840	3,342	2	12.1	1,322.6
Chatsworth	52,401	131,991	12	12.0	33.1
Antioch-Pittsburg	34,794	60,184	8	11.9	72.3
Grover Beach	17,326	20,184	4	11.9	214.6
Truckee	8,399	6,969	2	11.5	602.6
Camarillo	36,686	36,637	9	11.2	111.3
Burbank	47,928	228,767	12	11.0	17.5
Glendale	39,913	328,643	10	11.0	12.1
Simi Valley	41,136	56,223	12	9.4	61.0
Victorville	6,488	31,768	2	8.9	102.1
Fremont	43,515	137,854	14	8.5	22.5
Dunsmuir	5,370	960	2	7.4	2,796.9
Guadalupe	10,649	2,902	4	7.3	917.4
Moorpark	13,191	32,966	5	7.2	80.0
San Clemente Pier	9,223	25,049	4	6.3	92.0
Corcoran	27,424	5,142	12	6.3	444.4
Hayward	30,603	140,809	14	6.0	15.5
Colfax	4,036	3,962	2	5.5	509.3
Carpinteria	20,064	8,244	10	5.5	243.4
Turlock-Denair	23,454	29,031	12	5.4	67.3
Barstow	3,870	12,058	2	5.3	160.5
Lodi	7,422	29,362	4	5.1	63.2
Madera	21,739	22,749	12	5.0	79.6
Wasco	18,209	6,678	12	4.2	227.2
Pomona	1,517	148,017	1	4.2	10.2
Orange	3,025	257,287	2	4.2	5.9
Lompoc-Surf	5,950	186	4	4.1	7,997.3
Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo	2,938	114,909	2	4.0	12.8
Oakland Coliseum	22,113	157,390	17.9	3.4	7.8