Acela Express and the airports

I don't ride the Acela Express often, mainly due to the fact it doesn't stop in Bridgeport, but I was on vacation to Washington last weekend and decide to splurge on the Acela. On the ride down looking through the national timetable I noticed most of the Acela's stop at the BWI airport station while almost none, if any, stop at the Newark airport station. I've thought of a couple reasons why this would be the case, but am wondering if anyone knows for sure why they stop at BWI, but don't stop at Newark when Newark has many more destinations and airlines than BWI has.

Reason #1 I thought of: Since BWI has been a station longer than the Newark airport, which is one of the newest stations completed, the BWI airport got the Acela stopping at it. Don't think that would be a reason, but am trying to grasp straws here.
#2: BWI airport is also a "park and ride" stop compared to the Newark airport stop which AFAIK is strictly a stop for the airport, and with it being a park and ride stop it can generate a higher gate- higher revenue than a strictly an airport only stop where the only people that use it are either coming from a flight or going to a flight. Most of my Amtrak trips end in Baltimore, so I don't travel through BWI that often, but when I do it doesn't look like a big park & ride area.
#3: Compared with their previous stations stop Baltimore is about 12 minutes away from the BWI stop, while downtown Newark is only about 3 minutes from the Newark airport. That's the most logical reason that I can think of: no reason to have the "express" train make 2 stops 3 minutes apart.

So, anyone know the real reason?? Reason number 3 mainly, a combination of all 3 and other factors, a totally different reason entirely??

To add to your reason #2 - don't discount the other rail/bus/taxi connections from the BWI Airport station to local businesses. There are quite a number of nearby corporate and regional headquarters and a little agency called the NSA calls the area around BWI home, that brings in travelers down from the NEC that conform to Acela's clientel.

It is reason number 2. BWI wasn't that major of a stop until the late 90's. At that point, it only had three premium service trains north and two south. As the housing market in the area exploded, the Washington DC and Baltimore suburbs moved closer together. BWI, with its easy access to the BWI Parkway (MD 295), Interstate 195, Interstate 95, Interstate 695 (The Baltimore Beltway), Interstate 895 (The Harbor Tunnel Thruway), Route 2, Route 648, Route 3, BWI became a major park and ride for those who did not want to venture into the city to catch a train. Additionally, the once rural area is saturated with housing.
That's why the original surface parking lot was converted to giant parking garage complex. It helped the commuters and Amtrak passengers coexist.

Newark Airport rail station was built as a transfer station only. You can not park there nor can you drive to the train station. The only reason why Amtrak even stops there is they had a share code with Continental at EWR.

A great deal of Acela traffic is not downtown to downtown. That's why places like BWI, Metropark and RTE 128 outside of Boston thrive.

Several years ago I was traveling monthly from Massachusetts to a business in Morris Country, NJ. I usually took an Acela from RTE to Newark Penn Station, but because there were no car rental facilities at NWK would either taxi or use NJT + the Airtrain monorail to reach Hertz at Newark airport. I felt strongly that Amtrak was missing a good opportunity serve more business travelers heading to North Jersey through EWR, which has better highway access as well as rental cars than does Newark Penn. Conversely, the availability of long term parking and highway access also make EWR more attractive as a boarding location for suburban New Jerseyites heading to DC or New England. I wrote to then Amtrak President David Gunn with the suggestion of shifting all or some Acelas to EWR, and received a very detailed reply on why Amtrak wasn't doing this. Interestingly, his reasons were purely operational - in order to stop at EWR, trains have to switch from the center "express" tracks to the outer tracks which have platform access at EWR. Because no crossovers exist north (east?) of EWR, the Acelas would then have to remain on the slower tracks, getting caught up behind NJT trains which they otherwise pass between EWR and NWK. Given Amtrak's well-known inertia when it comes to changing decades-old operational practice to adapt to market shifts, I'm not surprised that this situation hasn't changed in the decade since I heard from Mr. Gunn.

davidp wrote:no crossovers exist north (east?) of EWR

Amtrak trains to NY can use x-overs maybe a half-mile each side of the airport station-- in the other direction the necessary x-overs might be a mile from the station.

Perhaps someone could do some further research on this, but I recall looking at United's site and the "flights" all seemed to be to destinations to the East. I did not see any, such as PHL, to the West.

No other airline, such as American (USAir) at PHL or Southwest at BWI seem too interested, so who knows if the United EWR "flights" are on thin ice.

davidp wrote:Because no crossovers exist north (east?) of EWR, the Acelas would then have to remain on the slower tracks, getting caught up behind NJT trains which they otherwise pass between EWR and NWK. Given Amtrak's well-known inertia when it comes to changing decades-old operational practice to adapt to market shifts, I'm not surprised that this situation hasn't changed in the decade since I heard from Mr. Gunn.

The two stations are barely 2 miles apart, and both Amtrak and NJT crawl for a good part of that distance anyway (for reasons I could never figure out).

You'd think a 'straight shooter' like Gunn would have just said "We don't do it because we don't want to" and leave it at that.

It's not like the connection at Newark is anything wonderful, anyway. You'd think a supposedly 'world class' city like New York would have a workable airport connection (Airtrain JFK is almost there, but it's a bit sluggish and you have to change at Jamacia), but, Zurich, Munich, Amsterdam, London all flatten it. Paris sucks, partly because it's slow, partly because you have to walk forever at the end anyway (and take a silly peoplemover), and partly because...well, you're at De Gaulle. The city at least makes up for it...

Nasadowsk wrote: ...
You'd think a supposedly 'world class' city like New York would have a workable airport connection (Airtrain JFK is almost there, but it's a bit sluggish and you have to change at Jamaica)...

The airport managers enjoy huge cash flow from Parking revenues. So they hate the idea that rail connections could reduce Parking. I'm sure EWK does not want more trains serving that station. Now just try to change that fact of life.

I think EWR is a bit of a special case, though. It's served not just by a local or regional agency but by Amtrak. The (relative) speed of Amtrak and the fact that it goes to other urban areas besides North NJ and NYC gives EWR a potentially huge catchment area, much bigger than many other east coast airports.

I live in Southeast PA but sometimes fly out of EWR, even though I'm much closer to PHL. I can take the train and get non-stops from EWR instead of connecting flights out of PHL. That's only possible because I can take a train that's reasonably fast and convenient to EWR. That's a benefit to EWR, it gives travelers outside the area where people would reasonably drive to the airport an easy way to get to EWR instead of going to their local airport.

It's worth nothing that NJT stopping at EWR would not benefit them in quite this way, since they're people who are solidly in the area where EWR is the only obvious choice for a local airport, whereas Amtrak brings in people who might otherwise not use it.

Not to mention, I'm not really sure that airports would prefer people drive and park, since many people park at offsite parking that funds the airport through a fee added on, just like airport train connections often do.

According to this Wall Street Journal column, The Middle Seat, Jet Blue has entered the LGA-BOS market - and promptly declared "fare war". American and Delta followed suit.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-boston- ... 1482336839" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Acela NYP-BOS business is down as a result.

Fair Use:

THE MIDDLE SEAT
The Boston-LaGuardia Shuttle Battle Heats Up
JetBlue’s arrival to battle Delta, American and Amtrak’s Acela sparks a new price war between Beantown and the Big Apple

Volks, I have to wonder just how viable is JetBlue?

American and Delta certainly can play a "fare war of attrition" longer than can they. Beyond their existing demand pricing, Amtrak would be best advised to take the temporary hit as the fare war will run its course.

Here they were casting about for a merger with Virgin - and lost. Now they are tinkering with their one-class "EconoPlus" in flight service, making it three class. Now they enter a new market against #1 and #2 and start a fare war they can't win.

I've flown them twice in this life, namely ORD-JFK-ACK-JFK-ORD in '09 and again ORD-JFK-ORD during '15. They're OK (free WI-FI on their larger A-320's - maybe even on their smaller Embraers - a plus), even if the last flight cost me my free TSA Pre Check that I had sticking with United (no longer serves JFK).

Finally, when will airlines ever learn to stop fighting fare wars? Probably when humankind learns to stop fighting the real deal.

Gilbert B Norman wrote:Volks, I have to wonder just how viable is JetBlue?

American and Delta certainly can play a "fare war of attrition" longer than can they. Beyond their existing demand pricing, Amtrak would be best advised to take the temporary hit as the fare war will run its course.

Here they were casting about for a merger with Virgin - and lost. Now they are tinkering with their one-class "EconoPlus" in flight service, making it three class. Now they enter a new market against #1 and #2 and start a fare war they can't win.

I've flown them twice in this life, namely ORD-JFK-ACK-JFK-ORD in '09 and again ORD-JFK-ORD during '15. They're OK (free WI-FI on their larger A-320's - maybe even on their smaller Embraers - a plus), even if the last flight cost me my free TSA Pre Check that I had sticking with United (no longer serves JFK).

Finally, when will airlines ever learn to stop fighting fare wars? Probably when humankind learns to stop fighting the real deal.

LGA-BOS hits really the "Shuttle" services offered by American and Delta (which their lineage goes back to the shuttle operated by PanAm and Eastern...both in the 80s offered 99.00 dollar flights on the BOS-NYC- shuttles) which have their loyal followers, however I was always told that if an regular on the shuttles gets fed up with the airline, they always defect to Amtrak.

Eastern airlines really helped to kill the PRR & NYNHH destinations BOS <> NYP / EWR <> WASH with their low low fare of off peak $12.88 and weekends. American did meet those fares with BAC-111 aircraft. The history is long and convoluted and when Trump bought the very profitable shuttle from nearly bankrupt EAL the shuttle slowly became a loosing proposition. Trump sold to US Air at a loss and US AIR could not make it work either. Now shuttle back to American. Will it work ? This poster highly doubts that it will. Just wait until major delays stack up the short haul airways.

There will be inefficient operating practices that bean counters and IT persons will think will save a nickel but that will sky rocket costs. EAL had figured out how to get the most from the least. Example EAL's prop planes would often beat AAL's jets gate to gate.

I'd say that JetBlue is very viable. There are so few airlines left that the remaining ones have strong pricing power (generally), and JetBlue has a devoted fan base. Not for me, though, with no lounges (as far as I know) and limited coverage.

The NYP-BOS segment of the Northeast Corridor seems to be Amtrak's weak spot, which JetBlue probably senses.

JetBlue is Boston's largest airline and Boston is its most profitable city. jetBlue has upped its goal to 200 daily flights. To get there it is adding business destinations like DCA, ATL, & LGA. Already it had successfully entered BOS-PHL (a market Southwest had tried and failed).

JetBlue in BOS is roughly the equivalent of Alaska in SEA (a good thing) and will do even better when the A321LR lets them fly to Ireland/UK

Also recall that Acela revenues really felt it when Southwest pulled out of BOS-PHL (Acela's BOS-PHL shot up) and when JetBlue entered BOS-PHL (Acela's BOS-PHL shot down)