RALEIGH, N.C. -- Anna C. Steenbuck, 65, was enjoying her last few hours with her grandchildren in Angier before she needed to catch her flight home to Newark, N.J., on Monday. Then she heard about the latest plane crash and the suspension of flights in and out of New York-area airports, according to the News & Observer.

Amtrak, Steenbuck said, "was my first thought."

Even before news of the freshest aviation disaster flashed across television screens, many travelers had turned to Amtrak when the skies suddenly seemed less safe. Ridership on Amtrak nationally rose about 15 percent in the month after the Sept. 11 attacks. The state-subsidized Carolinian, which runs between New York City and Charlotte, saw a similar increase initially, prompting the state to add a 64-seat car to the train.

"I was very happy this morning [that] I'm on the train," said Marie Keating, 51, who caught the New York­bound Carolinian home to Pennsville, N.J.

The attacks may also boost Amtrak's profile in Congress, where it is battling a mandate to turn a profit while seeking more money for high-speed rail corridors across the nation, including the Southeast. If North Carolina, its neighboring states, and the federal government can find $2 billion to $3 billion for high-speed rail, travelers could find themselves whizzing between Raleigh and Charlotte in trains topping 110 mph. A trip to Washington, D.C., could take as little as four hours.

"When I visited ground zero at the World Trade Center by train last month, it really hit home with me how important it is for the security of the traveling public, and for our economy, to invest in our transportation infrastructure," said U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, a Democrat from Lillington, N.C. "Rail is an important component of that infrastructure."

The Senate Finance Committee last week narrowly passed a $66.4 billion economic stimulus package that would allow the federal government to issue up to $7 billion in bonds to build up high-speed rail service. The state Department of Transportation wants its share of that money. Transportation officials in North Carolina and Virginia have been studying the effects of proposed high-speed trains along the 500-mile rail corridor between Washington, Richmond, Raleigh, and Charlotte. A hearing on the plans, postponed from Sept. 11, was set for Nov. 13 in Raleigh.

Faster trains sound good to Bernice Washington, 57, who lives in the Bronx. Shaken by the Sept. 11 attacks, Washington initially had refused to fly from New York to Raleigh to celebrate her godson's 30th birthday. At the last minute, she decided to take the train -- a 10-hour trip, barring delays, instead of the two-hour plane ride. "We're going back into this," she said, gesturing to the television crash coverage as she waited for the 11:57 a.m. Carolinian to pull in from Durham for her trip home.

Last year, 670 million people flew from U.S. airports, while Amtrak carried 22.5 million riders. Still, those were record numbers for Amtrak, created by Congress in 1970. Exact figures for the Carolinian were not available Monday, but state transportation officials reported an increase about the same as Amtrak's 15 percent. Ridership on the Piedmont, which runs between Raleigh and Charlotte, remained static.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, Amtrak initially shut down service in the Northeast corridor but then added trains for passengers stranded by the grounding of planes. After Monday's plane crash in New York City, Amtrak continued regular service in the Northeast and was prepared to add more trains to and from New York's Penn Station.

High-speed trains have been touted as an alternative to congested highways and crowded skies, but Pat Simmons, the DOT's rail division director, said Sept. 11 has shown that an efficient national passenger rail service is almost a national-security issue. "We have to have backup options," he said. "You need more than just automobiles and more than just airlines," he said.

Jill A. Christiansen, a retired lawyer who lives in Raleigh, was seeing her granddaughter off to Fredericksburg, Va., on the Carolinian. She enjoys traveling by rail and said that the new security procedures that require early arrival at airports and general air travel delays make train travel faster than flying in some cases. She doesn't like to drive long distances, and when she does, she leaves at 3 a.m. to avoid traffic. "I haven't let Sept. 11 bother me," she said. "Life goes on, travel goes on, and I'm going to travel the way it's easier for me. And for me, that's the train."