Railroad Related Maritime Inquiry

Might any of our 'salts' here, i.e. those having knowledge of maritime industry affairs, know what percentage, worldwide, of industry revenue comes from handling passengers, i.e. cruises, ferries, 'Trans-At" sailings (Carnival/Cunard "Queens")/

Long shot for a response, but enquiring mind wants to know for comparative discussion at Amtrak Forum.

Mr Norman, you piqued my curiosity, so did a quick search. From the link below: The total worldwide cruise market is estimated at $26.8. (The article also has passenger counts, revenue per passenger, etc.

By comparison, I'd estimate that global container vessel operations generate $150-200 billion. No idea about industry revenue associated with dry bulk and tanker/parcel vessels.

http://www.cruisemarketwatch.com/blog1/ ... ojections/

Thank you Mr. Cowford; it seems as if we are the the only two around here who have interest in maritime affairs - even though so far as I am concerned I cannot think of two industries whose interests are more mutual than railroad and maritime.

I suppose had the Land Bridge concept not died a natural death (I'll always hold that had both the MILW and ERIE been acquired by maritime interests, a true Land Bridge could have come to pass), the two industries could have been considered competitors, but failing that, they can only be considered partners in the worldwide distribution of tangible goods.

However to close on topic, you have established that passenger revenue to the maritime industry represents a far greater percentage of revenue than does passenger revenue to the US railroad industry.

Bumping up an old post.

I would challenge that assumption, Mr. Norman. While the cruise and ferry and container segments are very visible, there's far more tonnage and absolute number of blue-water hulls in dry bulk and tanker.

I'll see if I can extract some trade publications and see if I can get some "apples to apples" comparison numbers to go with the cruise value and Mr. Cowford's conatiner ship assessment. But I think at the end of the day the proportioning will be similar if not worse than rail passenger vs. freight. Mainly because there are no "trucks." But all in good fun.

Rich

Be careful what you post, typos can come back years later to haunt you.

Cowford wrote:... From the link below: The total worldwide cruise market is estimated at $26.8.
...
By comparison, I'd estimate that global container vessel operations generate $150-200 billion...
http://www.cruisemarketwatch.com/blog1/ ... ojections/

Gilbert B Norman wrote:...you have established that passenger revenue to the maritime industry represents a far greater percentage of revenue than does passenger revenue to the US railroad industry.

Twenty six dollars and 80 cents to 150-200 billion dollars represents a great percentage?
Forgive me, I couldn't resist quibling about Cowford leaving out the billion on $26.8, as mentioned before, a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.