Ridership and ticket revenues for Amtrak’s embattled Southwest Chief, which runs through southeast Colorado, rose slightly in 2015 amidst successful efforts to preserve the historic route.

Passenger numbers totaled 367,267, up 4.3 percent over 2014, and ticket revenues rose about .6 percent to just under $45 million, Amtrak data shows.

Needing roughly $200 million for miles of track repairs on Burlington Northern Santa Fe’s line, officials were plotting to reroute the beloved Chicago-to-Los Angeles train into Oklahoma and Texas.

Small Colorado towns — Lamar, La Junta and Trinidad — banded together with their counterparts in Kansas and New Mexico to save the route. A $15 million federal grant was awarded to their work in late October, the second such grant in two years, meaning the train will keep rumbling through the foreseeable future.

More than $50 million has been gathered to date thanks also to state and local matching efforts, and BNSF has agreed to cover much of the maintenance costs.

The other Amtrak route running through Colorado, the Chicago-to-San Francisco train known as the California Zephyr, also saw increased ridership last year.

Amtrak said the Zephyr, which passes through Denver’s Union Station, saw 375,342 passengers in 2015, a 2.4 percent increase over 2014.

Ticket revenues on the route dropped .9 percent to about $48.7 million.

Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or @JesseAPaul