More people are riding Amtrak’s Missouri River Runner this month, thanks in large part to Oktoberfest in Hermann. Bryan Ross, railroad operations manager for MoDOT, said lots of Oktoberfest attendees choose to take the train to Hermann.
“October is our second busiest month, only behind the month of July, which is right in the middle of summer when people are going on vacations,” Ross told Missourinet. “With Octoberfest occurring again this year, we’re anticipating that those numbers will be high again.”
The most recent numbers available from Amtrak show a steady increase of passengers taking the Missouri River Runner to and from Hermann, from 17,568 in 2022 to 21,008 in 2023. Those figures are year-round, not specific to October. The Missouri-exclusive passenger service operates two trains per day between St. Louis and Kansas City.
“We do have passengers who will just go to Hermann for a daytrips and spend an afternoon there but they are also heavily interested in and get a lot of travelers who are going there to spend a night or two, or maybe three,” Ross said.
In case some riders celebrate Oktoberfest a little too hard, Ross said that Amtrak increases the size of its on-train police force during October. He added, though, that Missouri River Runner passengers are “typically…well behaved.” Hermann is celebrating Oktoberfest every weekend through October 26th.
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