Amtrak Success Stories

ne plus ultra wrote:A related question, but somewhat different, when they say revenue is up 9%, are they including state subsidies in the revenue figure?

It is:

National Railroad Passenger Corporation and Subsidiaries (Amtrak)
Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements
11
Revenue Recognition
“Passenger related” revenue in the Consolidated Statements of Operations, for fiscal years 2009
and 2008, includes ticket revenue, state contribution revenue associated with requested service provided
by Amtrak beyond that included in the basic route system, and food and beverage revenue as shown
below (in millions):
-------------------------------------------2009--------------------------2008
Ticket -------------------------------$ 1,563.5-------------------- $ 1,697.8
State contribution ----------------------157.4------------------------ 164.5
Food and beverage ----------------------92.6-------------------------- 93.1
Total passenger related revenue $ 1,813.5-------------------- $ 1,955.4
These revenues are recognized as operating revenues when the related services are provided.
Amounts received for tickets that have been sold but not used are reflected as "Deferred ticket revenue" in
the Consolidated Balance Sheets.

goodnightjohnwayne wrote:

mkellerm wrote: As to the broader question, ridership revenues have increased faster than inflation, but as the previous poster mentioned, expenses have increased faster than inflation as well. The operating ratio has been pretty consistent at between 1.5 to 1.6; it was a bit higher during the Gunn years as Amtrak spent the money to move the railroad toward SOGR. That translates into operating revenues covering about 2/3 of operating expenses (incl. depreciation).

For any passenger railroad operation, expenses will always increase faster than inflation due to the unionized workforce. This is precisely why it's unreasonable to expect any passenger rail operation to break even. Basically, the choice is between subsidizing trains or not having passenger trains at all.

HSR has raised the stakes, since a nationwide HSR system would cost the taxpayers tens of billions per year in annual subsidies, or 10 to 15 times more than the current Amtrak subsidy.

Keep in mind that Amtrak's Acela service appears to cover their operating costs as do the mostly unionized airlines who from time to time have managed to be profitable. Southwest Airlines, which has the most heavily unionized workforce in the airline entire industry is also the most consistently profitable airline operation. I don't necessarily credit collective bargaining with making Southwest profitable. I do not however credit collective bargaining practices with making Amtrak unprofitable. The freight railroads are also heavily unionized, especially among the national lines and they do just fine.

According to MO River Runner's twitter page ridership was up 28.8% in Oct year-over-year. Where can one find ridership numbers going back many years?

The final results are now available for Amtrak’s 2010 fiscal year and once again the railroad set new records. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... onthly.pdf

Ridership totalled almost 29 million passengers.



Ticket revenues were also up to $1.7 billion in FY 2010, representing an average ticket price of $60.70. The average fare on the Northeast Corridor was $86.66 and the average distance traveled was 165 miles. On other corridor routes, the average fare was $28.13 and the average distance traveled was 131 miles. On the long distance routes, fares averaged $101.42 for a journey of 624 miles.

Compared to FY 2009, ridership on Amtrak trains increased by 5.7% for the year, and revenues were up by 9%. The increase in the number of passengers can be attributed primarily to the nation’s slow but steady economic recovery and rising gasoline prices.

Amtrak ended the fiscal year with revenues $86 million better than budgeted and expenses $59 million lower than budgeted. The lower expenses were primarily due to planned construction projects which have taken longer than anticipated to get started. Many stations are getting work done now to install wheelchair lifts to assist the disabled. Amtrak has also used some of its available cash to make down payments on 130 new long distance passenger rail cars and 70 new electric locomotives. All of the new equipment will be rated for 125 mph operation.

One Amtrak destination that made significant progress in 2010 is New Orleans. The New Orleans station serves three long distance routes that span the country with origins in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. All three routes had healthy passenger growth in September, pushing the New Orleans station into the top 50 Amtrak destinations. Passengers getting on and off at New Orleans increased 27% from FY 2009 to over 200,000 in the year just passed. September ridership increased by 10% on the Crescent and 19% on the Sunset Limited. Ridership on the namesake City of New Orleans trains increased by 27%.

Along that City of New Orleans route is Mattoon, Illinois, home of Amtrak board chairman Thomas Carper. The Coles County Historical Society just completed $3 million in improvements and restoration work to the eastern Illinois station. The station is also served by the daily Illini and Saluki trains to Chicago. http://www.rtands.com/newsflash/new-amt ... n-ill.html

Illinois sponsored corridor trains served almost 2 million passengers in FY 2010, an increase of 55% since 2005. Travel on the Chicago-St. Louis route was up by 11% in just the past year. http://www.easterniowagovernment.com/20 ... is-routes/

Down at the St. Louis end, the number of passengers passing through that station increased by 15% over last year. Travel on the River Runner trains from St. Louis to Kansas City increased by 14%. Missouri was given a grant of $3.6 million to add a third track into the St. Louis station. http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/n ... s-for.html

Meanwhile, work continues in Illinois on replacing almost 100 miles of single track between Lincoln and Alton with new rail and concrete ties that will eventually enable travel at up to 110 mph. The work south of Springfield is now done and has begun between Springfield and Bloomington. http://www.lincolncourier.com/news/x298 ... -disrupted

Up at Chicago Union Station, work has begun on a $40 million project to double the seats in the passenger waiting area and add air conditioning to the great hall. And in Joliet, $42 million has been dedicated to the Joliet multi-modal transportation center. The transportation center will serve Amtrak trains, Metra Rock Island and Heritage Corridor trains, local Pace bus service and include parking for 500 cars. The station currently serves 800,000 passengers per year. http://www.enewspf.com/index.php/latest ... on-center-

September ridership on the California Zephyr increased by 13% over last year. The train misses eight of Iowa’s nine metropolitan statistical areas, stopping only in Omaha/Council Bluffs. The states of Iowa and Illinois won $240 million in federal grants to bring two trains per day from Chicago to Moline and Iowa City by 2015. An additional $65.6 million is dedicated in Illinois, Iowa and local funds. http://qctimes.com/news/local/article_c ... =hottopics

Time magazine named the biodiesel Heartland Flyer one of the top 50 inventions of 2010. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packa ... 22,00.html The train, running on 20 percent biodiesel produced from beef fat produces 10 percent less carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons, 15 percent less particulate matter and 20 less sulfates. http://www.heartlandflyer.com/news-spec ... aspx?id=73

In Michigan, ridership on the Wolverine was up 24% in September and ridership on the Blue Water was up by 35%. Amtrak added more business class and regular coach seats to the Wolverine trains during the weekends, and the public responded by filling them up. An extra train was also added between Chicago and Kalamazoo during the Labor Day weekend.

Michigan was awarded $161 million for rail improvements in October. $150 million will be spent between Dearborn and Kalamazoo. The goal is to eventually get the line up to 110 mph, but work is needed first to restore it to 79 mph after it was recently downgraded to 60 mph. Another $7.9 million will be used at West Detroit to build a connecting track between Conrail Shared Assets and the Canadian National line, bypassing delays due to slow freight movements. http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/Mich ... 45463.html

On Amtrak’s fastest train, the Acela, ridership in September was up by 11% over last year. Many of the new passengers spend part of their time on the train on the internet or checking e-mail. Free Wi-fi connections are offered on all of the Acela trains and are used by about 40% of the passengers. Massachusetts will get $32.5 million for preliminary engineering and environmental analysis to nearly double the size of Boston’s South Station. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... _325m.html

Travel on the Vermonter was up by 21% in September compared to a year ago. Connecticut and Massachusetts were awarded a grant of $121 million in October to construct a second track between New Haven and Springfield. http://articles.courant.com/2010-10-26/ ... ter-trains This is in addition to January’s award of $40 million to Connecticut, $70 million to Massachusetts and $50 million to Vermont for improvements between New Haven and St. Albans.

In upstate New York, travel on the Adirondack was up by 14% in September and travel between Albany and Niagara Falls was up by 11%. The exchange rate between Canadian dollars and US dollars is now almost one to one, making US travel more affordable for Canadians. Amtrak has now launched a French version of its web site for travellers. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... elease.pdf Amtrak now has 4 daily trains to Canada: the Adirondack to Montreal, the Maple Leaf to Toronto, and the twice-daily Cascades to Vancouver. In Vancouver, the Canadian government has committed $5.1 million to renovating the Pacific Central Station. http://www.theprovince.com/Ottawa+fund+ ... story.html

In Virginia, the now one-year-old service to Lynchburg finished out the fiscal year with ridership 162% above pre-launch estimates. The service which earned $2.1 million in its first year should be able to survive any budget cutbacks by the new Republican legislature in Virginia. The additional Northeast Regional train to Richmond had a passenger volume 28% percent higher than expected in its first 72 days of service, but Amtrak isn’t crediting all of the ticket revenue to Virginia since many of the passengers continue their journey to points beyond the short distance between Richmond and Washington, DC. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... rship_.pdf

Not only has the new Virginia service added capacity between Washington and Richmond, so has the Palmetto. In September, ridership on the Palmetto between New York and Savannah rose by 16%. In response to the rising demand, Amtrak has now replaced the business-class/café car with a full business-class car and a full café car.

The Carolinian, which diverges from the Palmetto at Selma, NC, also continues to do well, with September ridership 12% ahead of last year. Ridership on the Piedmont trains across North Carolina is up by 107% over last year.

Continuing south from Cary, NC, to Miami via Orlando and Tampa, the Silver Star carried 11% more passengers in September. Florida was awarded another $800 million in October for high speed rail between Orlando and Tampa on top of $1.25 billion in January. http://jacksonville.com/opinion/blog/40 ... il-funding Although Florida Representative John Mica is considering scaling back the service to just a small segment between the Orlando airport and Disney World, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101103/ap_ ... d_trains_2 Virgin Trains, SNCF and six other companies are interested in bidding on building the new Florida service. http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/dpp/news/s ... o-11152010 Virgin Trains would offer connections to England and Scotland through trans-Atlantic service on Virgin Atlantic Airways. Amtrak and Bechtel are partners in the SNCF bid. http://www.railwayage.com/breaking-news ... -dbom.html SNCF operates trains in France, Spain, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

This past Thanksgiving weekend, as many travelers were debating on whether they wanted their private parts imaged or handled, Amtrak, which allowed passengers to walk on trains without showing anything more than a ticket, carried a record number of riders. Using every available passenger car, the railroad carried over 700,000 people over the weekend and over 134,000 on Wednesday alone. The following trains had significant increases in ridership compared to Thanksgiving weekend 2009:

+135% North Carolina’s Piedmont

+20%

• Sunset Limited
  Missouri’s River Runner
  Michigan’s Blue Water
  Illinois’ Lincoln service

+19% Washington-Lynchburg

+18%

• Vermonter
  Wolverine

+15%

• Cardinal
  Indiana’s Hoosier
  Chicago-Carbondale
  Chicago-Quincy

+14% Lake Shore Limited

+13% Acela

+12% Pennsylvanian

+11%

• Southwest Chief
  Palmetto

+10%

• Capitol Limited
  Albany-Niagara Falls

“The record ridership demonstrates Amtrak’s ability to satisfy the traveling needs of the public and highlights the need for America to invest more in passenger rail to meet the increasing demand,” said Amtrak President Joseph Boardman. http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... Record.pdf

For the most part that’s true, but passenger demand between Albany and Niagara Falls was much greater than the 10% increase in ridership indicates. Many trains in that corridor were sold out two weeks in advance of the Thanksgiving weekend. Coraline Falco, who lives in Syracuse, was one person who tried to get a ticket to see her family in Long Island and ended up driving. http://www.wktv.com/community/holidays/110454799.html

It's interesting that 34 of 44 trains showed improvement (see below for the list that didn't). Of the 15 trains originating or terminating in Chicago, only 13 showed improvement, or about 87%. Of the remaining 29 trains, 21 showed improvement - still good, but only 72%. And the two Chicago-based trains that did decline are two of the 4 longest -- in other words, the trains where improvement at the Chicago hub would be overshadowed by decline elsewhere.

I can't help but think that the Illinois service improvement of 4 years ago is still showing lasting effects, improving performance on all the connecting routes by delivering more passengers to the hub. I wonder if improved service in Virginia will have a similar system effect at some point.


Trains showing DECREASES:
Northeast Regional
New Haven
Keystone
Heartland Flyer
Pacific Surfliner
San Joaquin
Empire Builder
California Zephyr
Texas Eagle
Crescent

Looked at another way:

Routes terminating in Chicago were up an average of 8.1% (an increase of 9,644 over 2009's total of 119,160).

Routes in the rest of the country were up an average of 1.6% (an increase of 8,926 over 2009's total of 566,716)

Congress adjourned without deciding on a new budget for the current year, passing a continuing resolution that runs until early March. So, for at least the first four months of the fiscal year, Amtrak has to live within last year’s budget amount. The Amtrak budget is helped, however, by an increase in passenger ticket sales. In October, ridership was up by 7% over last year and revenues were up by 14%. The October results are available at http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... onthly.pdf

Virginia and North Carolina are beginning to see the system effects of service improvements made in the past year. Ridership on the Washington-Lynchburg line, which debuted much stronger than expected, is up by another 40% this year. And ridership on the Crescent train running on the same tracks is up by 17%. Bedroom sales on the Crescent are up by 11%. Now that Virginia has added another train between Washington and Richmond, ridership is up by 15% on the Washington-Newport News trains and up by 26% on the Palmetto. Giving people more times when they can travel on a given corridor increases the attractiveness of all trains on that corridor.

Virginia has now reached an agreement with the Norfolk Southern Railway to extend the new Washington-Richmond train to Norfolk. Virginia plans on spending $87 million to upgrade the line between Norfolk and Petersburg and add a connection to the CSX tracks at Petersburg. Daily service should begin within three years. http://www.nscorp.com/nscportal/nscorp/ ... enger.html

In North Carolina, the second Piedmont train has increased ridership on those trains by 121%. The benefits extend to the Carolinian running on the same tracks with 24% more passengers.

Passenger demand is rising in Michigan. Ridership on the Wolverine trains between Chicago and Detroit rose by 24% in October and ridership on the Blue Water rose by 39% compared with a year ago. Michigan has $161 million available from the Federal government for rail improvements, but the state legislature hasn’t come up with the $40 million needed for an 80/20 match. The money is needed to improve the tracks between Kalamazoo and Dearborn, where trains currently run slower because of poor maintenance. The on-time performance for the Wolverine fell below 50% in October with an average delay per train of 49 minutes.

The Illinois trains all did well. Ridership on the Chicago-St. Louis corridor was up by 16% over last year despite disruptions due to track work. The rebuilding of most of the track between Lincoln and Alton is now complete. The State of Illinois and the Union Pacific Railroad have reached a new agreement and work will begin soon on track improvements between Lincoln and Dwight. http://www.sj-r.com/top-stories/x180877 ... speed-rail

The improvements through Springfield and from Chicago to Dwight still remain subject to preliminary environmental investigations and preliminary engineering. A study by Hanson Professional Services suggests re-routing trains in Springfield from along Third Street to along 10th Street. They believe that this will have the least environmental impact. It will, however, run right through the building currently occupied by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. The state workers would need to be relocated.

The Chicago-Carbondale trains, the Illini and Saluki, had a 16% increase in ridership in October. The long-distance City of New Orleans had a 27% increase in ridership and a 16% increase in bedroom sales. Illinois trains to Quincy had a 12% increase in ridership.

Missouri also experienced healthy passenger growth, with 29% more passengers this October between St. Louis and Kansas City than last October.

In Texas, passenger traffic on the Heartland Flyer was up by 17% and the number of passengers carried by the Sunset Limited was up by 26%. The number of passengers reserving bedrooms on the Sunset was up by 15%. The chart below shows the recent growth in passenger traffic at Texas stations served by the Sunset.


Travel on the Lake Shore Limited was up by 15% in October. Work may begin next year to improve signals and add crossovers in northwest Indiana to allow the oft-delayed Lake Shore Limited to pass slower freight trains. Over $71 million in federal funds is available for the improvements. http://www.post-trib.com/news/2931114,n ... 30.article

Further east along the Lake Shore route, travel on the Buffalo-Albany segment is up by 12%. Of the four trains travelling through that section of upstate New York, the Toronto Maple Leaf seems to be the one sold out most often.

ryanch wrote:Looked at another way:

Routes terminating in Chicago were up an average of 8.1% (an increase of 9,644 over 2009's total of 119,160).

Routes in the rest of the country were up an average of 1.6% (an increase of 8,926 over 2009's total of 566,716)

THere may be another factor where the OTP of the shorter run train offers a better choice over the LD run. For example, compare Chicago-Galesburg via the Quincy trains vs the CZ/SC. A similar choice is between Chicago-Milwaukee via the Hiawatha vs the EB.

i think some of these results may be symbolic of Amtrak reaching critical mass . i.e theres enough service to make make amtrak a real option for travellers . this eads to more passengers , which makes more services viable , which makes more passengers , and so on .
i wouldnt be surprised if amtrak is brave enough to fund new passenger cars out of its own increased revenue .

David Benton wrote:i think some of these results may be symbolic of Amtrak reaching critical mass . i.e theres enough service to make make amtrak a real option for travellers . this eads to more passengers , which makes more services viable , which makes more passengers , and so on .
i wouldnt be surprised if amtrak is brave enough to fund new passenger cars out of its own increased revenue .

The problem with that theory is that Amtrak hasn't been constrained by a lack of a capacity, namely a shortage of coaches, and hasn't significantly expanded its route structure either. In any case, Amtrak can't fund anything without Congressional outlays, and after the HSR furor and the ill-timed $117 billion/35 year NE Corridor replacement plan, the prospects in the House of Representatives are bleak.

jstolberg wrote: Giving people more times when they can travel on a given corridor increases the attractiveness of all trains on that corridor.

This is super important and yet so many people dont get it.

1 train a day = you wont even look at train service as an option. (0 purchase)
2 trains a day = you'll look, but it probably wont fit in your schedule (0 purchase)
3 trains a day = it may fit in schedule (2 purchases)

It's not a linear relationship.

I have read a number of time that, as per Mr. Sinclair's post, 3/day is the magic level to get a substantial increase in ridership (that was the experience with the San Joaquins, I believe), although I'd note that the Lynchburg train has done extraordinarily well just by going from 1 frequency to 2. Whether one of the frequencies is a LD train is an important factor, as a LD train can arrive/depart at very inhospitable hours, and they often run quite late.

Five a day turned out to be the magic number for the Downeaster. Although ridership was decent at four and certainly better than zero five a day seemed to be the threshold at which the train became not only possible but in many instances preferred. We are eagerly anticipating the results of adding a sixth roundtrip however that is on hold pending further substantial improvements in track capacity. In the meantime the Downeaster is within finger's reach of 500,000 passengers per year.

Ayup, gotta admit, frequency matters. I've decided at least for the next couple of decades of my working carerrier I want to live "close" to the NEC or Empire Service or similar where I can expect to be able to "catch a train w/o having to give it too much thought".

It's one reason why BWI is ideal for me when I fly to the DC area. I know that pretty much within an hour I'm going to be able to catch a train. I don't have to "plan" in much detail.