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Amtrak served 137,000 riders in March, a 5.5 percent increase compared with March 2010 and the 17th consecutive month of year-over-year ridership growth.

"Our ridership has grown more than 36 percent since 2000, and I expect that trend to continue and — if gas prices continue to rise — to accelerate," Amtrak President and Chief Executive Officer Joe Boardman said in a prepared statement.

Speaking before the House Appropriations Committee on Thursday, Boardman also said Amtrak's "only restriction" on potential ridership growth "will be the available capacity."

Amtrak set annual ridership records in seven of the past eight fiscal years, including a mark of more than 28.7 million passengers in fiscal-year 2010.

For the first six months of FY2011 (October through March), ridership totaled 802,745 passengers, up 5.9 percent vs. the first six months of FY2010. In addition, ridership during the first six months of FY2011 increased on all three of Amtrak’s major business lines: Northeast Corridor, up 3.9 percent; state-supported and other short-distance corridors, up 7.7 percent; and long-distance trains, up 5.3 percent.

Ridership during the six-month period also increased on most individual Amtrak train routes across the country, with strong gains posted in the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest and California.

National ridership numbers for the period likely would have been higher in the Pacific Northwest if harsh winter weather hadn't caused frequent mudslides, which prompted track closures, according to Amtrak.