Amtrak Success Stories

eagle628 wrote:"May was the best month on record for the increasingly popular Northeast Regional service carrying 693,268 passengers" <--best month on record since when? 1971?

well the wording could lend itself to the last 5 or so years since it was changed from "acela regional" to "northeast regional"

The return to significant growth on the NE Regionals after the bus wars on the shorter core markets is encouraging. If you look at section 3.4 of the Amtrak monthly reports you'll see that in the 2011 year to date Regionals account for 25% of the total(17m) Amtrak ridership while Acela of total is about 11% -revenue per trip is approx $70 and $150 per trip respectively and this year Acela aggregate revenue has just moved ahead of NE Regional.

Total revenue on NEC is approx 55% of overall. Ridership approx 61%.

As a comparison the next largest trip generator is the Pacific Surfliners with about 1.5m shown at an average income of $17 per trip.

To keep Amtrak growth "motoring" the NE Regionals need careful nurturing both ridership and yieldwise.

eagle628 wrote:"May was the best month on record for the increasingly popular Northeast Regional service carrying 693,268 passengers" <--best month on record since when? 1971?

Good question. How far back and is Amtrak counting the NEC trains that preceded the NE Regional name? The total number of riders on the Acela (303,827) and the NE Regional for May was just under 1 million. If all the passengers on the NEC WAS-BOS services, whether they were the Metroliners, NE Directs, named trains, or in the current era, the Acela & NE Regionals, were added up on a month to month basis going back to A-day, did Amtrak ever break a million passengers in a single month? Or did the hand-off of the Clocker service to NJT reduce NEC ridership numbers that Amtrak has yet to get back to earlier levels?

Are there Amtrak reports going back to the 70s with ridership numbers?

theo wrote:The return to significant growth on the NE Regionals after the bus wars on the shorter core markets is encouraging. If you look at section 3.4 of the Amtrak monthly reports you'll see that in the 2011 year to date Regionals account for 25% of the total(17m) Amtrak ridership while Acela of total is about 11% -revenue per trip is approx $70 and $150 per trip respectively and this year Acela aggregate revenue has just moved ahead of NE Regional.

Total revenue on NEC is approx 55% of overall. Ridership approx 61%.

As a comparison the next largest trip generator is the Pacific Surfliners with about 1.5m shown at an average income of $17 per trip.

To keep Amtrak growth "motoring" the NE Regionals need careful nurturing both ridership and yieldwise.

The March Performance Report shows Fiscal Year to Date loss for the Northeast Regionals of $6.5 million.
In April that dropped to a loss of $3.3 million (which means a net profit of $3.2 million for the month).

Since the Northeast Regionals carried almost 900 more passengers in May than they did in April, we should be at the break-even point for the year.

The Amtrak An American Story book just published does give ridership nos for the whole system by year - it built up to 18.6m under Lewis and Reistrup to 1978 then hovered around the range 19m to 23m to 2002 and has grown consistently since to the present level. Whetehr the series is like for like is not confirmed. The passenger mileage in 2010 at 6332m is apparently very similar to 1998 which is probably about the growth of short journeys in California where the Sacramento and Santa Barbara/San diego Corridors are under 150 miles in length and well travelled these days. Largest number of stns served was in 1979 at 571 - its 528 currently.

theo wrote:The Amtrak An American Story book just published does give ridership nos for the whole system by year - it built up to 18.6m under Lewis and Reistrup to 1978 then hovered around the range 19m to 23m to 2002 and has grown consistently since to the present level. Whetehr the series is like for like is not confirmed.

Series is almost but not quite like for like, mostly due to transfer of certain services to NJT, though I don't know what year that was done.

NJT picked up the Clockers the end of October 2005.

I recently returned with my wife from Philadelphia on Amtrak(to NYP). We had arranged to be met at the train by a red cap to help with our luggage and suppy a railroad owned wheel chair to help my wife navigate the statoin (she has several health problems, including mobility issues). The red cap failed to appear, but our conductors went above and beyond in that they helped her off the coach onto the platform, and one of them helped with our luggage and got us onto a taxi.

Much thanks to Mr. D. Washington, and the head conductor whom he was working with on Monday.

You should write a letter to amtrak, good letters go a long way.

The company will also see it on their FaceBook page if you post there.

Amtrak says ridership will go over 30 million for the first time and that it had the best June in its history:
http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation ... first-time

Amtrak said Tuesday that it will top 30 million passengers for the first time this year on the way to setting a ridership record for the national passenger rail service.

The agency said it was making the projection based its June ridership, which was higher than any June in its history, at 2.6 million passengers, and tickets sales for July, August and September.

Amtrak said the performance this year was a part of larger trend that has seen it break its previous ridership records in seven of the last years. Last year, the agency said it had 28.7 million passengers.

"We are having a very strong year because people around the country are choosing the convenience, efficiency and hassle-free environment of Amtrak to meet their travel needs," Amtrak President Joe Boardman said in a statement. "Amtrak has wisely invested the federal funding we have received to improve infrastructure and equipment. Continued investment in Amtrak and passenger rail will support the further growth of this increasingly vital transportation option."

The news comes amid an ongoing debate in Washington about privatizing rail service in the northeast, which is home to Amtrak's most popular routes.

Republicans in the House argue that private companies could develop and maintain high-speed rail better than Amtrak, which owns the tracks in the region. The company has countered that it has a plan for increasing the speed of its Acela trains and developing more high-speed rail.

Impressive, given June wasn't exactly a banner month for consistent service.

Our politicians in Washington seem all concerned these days about balancing the budget. Some want to do it by cutting spending, others by raising revenue. Revenue, in Washington, usually means taxes, which are collected from the willing and the unwilling alike. But revenue can also come by providing a product or service that people want to buy at prices they are willing to pay. In that second sense, Amtrak has been raising revenue. This installment of Amtrak Success Stories will focus on Amtrak's May performance report and how Amtrak has been able to increase its revenue in the past year.
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServe ... onthly.pdf

Passenger revenue in May increased 11% from a year earlier, as gasoline prices averaged $3.96 per gallon and passengers grew dissatisfied with the hassles of traveling by air. Amtrak's top five trains in May in terms of revenue per train trip were:

1. Auto Train $102,303
2. Acela $91,364
3. Empire Builder $87,419
4. California Zephyr $72,663
5. Southwest Chief $65,409

The daily Auto Train carried an average of 351 passengers each way between Lorton, Virginia and Sanford, Florida. Because the train does not make any intermediate stops, all those passengers traveled the entire length of the route. That was an increase of 11% in the number of passengers but only an 8% increase in revenues as passengers made their reservations earlier than last year.

Revenues on the Acela are up 13% over last year and represent 27% of Amtrak's business. The train runs 10 times per day in each direction Monday through Friday, twice on Saturdays and 5 times on Sundays and Holidays. The 304-seat train carried an average of 613 passengers per train in May. Seats are typically used twice, once between Boston and New York, and a second time between New York and Philadelphia or Washington. Since most passengers begin or end their trips in New York, nearly every seat was filled when the train left Penn Station.

Amtrak would like to increase revenue further from this popular service. To do so, they are proposing to buy new railcars to lengthen each train and increase the number of available seats by 40%.

The Empire Builder had an increase in revenues of 16% and carried an average of 721 passengers per train. A seat on the Empire Builder will typically get sold three times (Chicago to St. Paul, St. Paul to Minot and Spokane to Portland).

Sales on the California Zephyr increased 21% in May as the train carried an average of 545 passengers per train. Popular segments on the train are Chicago to Denver, Denver to Glenwood Springs and Reno to Sacramento. Denver is spending $484 million on a new transit center and Sacramento is spending $41 million. http://www.unionstationdenver.com/

The Southwest Chief carried an average of 530 passengers per train and ticket sales rose 13% from last year. Popular segments include Chicago to Kansas City and Albuquerque to Los Angeles, although over 80 passengers per train take the trip all the way from Illinois to California.

Those are the five trains with the most revenue per train. Now let's look at the five fastest growing routes with more potential for the future.

At the top of the list is the Piedmont in North Carolina. Since adding mid-day service, revenues have grown by 95% and ridership has grown 76%. A federal grant agreement has been approved with the state of North Carolina and the Norfolk Southern Railway that gives the state $461 million for track upgrades, station improvements and new equipment to add a fourth daily round trip between Raleigh and Charlotte. The grant is expected to generate about 4,000 jobs. http://www.asheville.com/news/amtrack0311.html

Second on the list is the Northeast Regional service to Lynchburg. Now in it's second year, the route has generated 48% more revenue than last year and May ridership increased 43%. Beginning next week, a daily bus will extend service from Lynchburg to Roanoke. http://www.roanoke.com/news/breaking/wb/291245

Missouri's River Runner comes in third with an increase in revenues of 44% and an increase in ridership of 29%.

Indiana's Hoosier State had a May increase in revenues of 27% and ridership growth of 28%.

Michigan's Blue Water had a 27% increase in ticket revenues and a 22% increase in riders.

Gosh. Indianapolis isn't that far from Chicago -- in fact, it's the nearest "big city" to Chicago after Milwaukee.

If folks in the Midwest are climbing aboard the Hoosier State, despite its horrible schedule (and no amenities), it may mean something.

How many of the riders are college students?

The long distance train revival, while punctuated by floods and fire is interesting.

On the Amtrak web site there are the PR1A reports on the Sunset Limited and Cardinal to daily; the California Zephyr;and the Capitol with, I recall another batch to come.

We know that there is an impasse on the Sunset but what about action on the others or are they just being filed?

Minneapolis and Atlanta are among the most used stations with one train daily - is a next step to move forward the market not to reinvent the morning and evening Hiawathas out from Chicago in the morning and return in the evening? The current EB time is 8hrs approx and it needs pulling in to optimise with say a 0700 dep out of Chicago and 1600 return.

The Crescent takes 18 hrs NY to Atlanta and vv. The route lends itself to 0600 departures from each end and would build on this market as well as Piedmont and Lynchburg to some extent.

Kansas and Cleveland are other routes from Chicago that lend themselves to morning ex Chicago afternoon return workings.

Second frequencies each day between New York and Pittsburgh also commend themselves - the 1320 Sunday from Pittsburgh to run daily and the 1050 ex NY to split into 07xx and 13xx departures.