As much as people rag on Amtrak, most of it's long haul routes operate daily. Why do almost all routes outside of the Toronto to Montreal corridor operate less than daily?
railgeekteen wrote:As much as people rag on Amtrak, most of it's long haul routes operate daily. Why do almost all routes outside of the Toronto to Montreal corridor operate less than daily?Not enough rolling stock and not enough passengers seems the logical reason.
Like Amtrak's NEC, VIA's corridor services carry most of its passengers.....
Some data to prove that point:
Per https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/v ... 31823.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
From December 18, 2017 to January 7, 2018:
VIA RAIL CROSS-CANADA ROUTES
308,000 passengers (up 9.7%)
Total 100%
QUÉBEC CITY–WINDSOR CORRIDOR
291,500 passengers (up 10.7%)
291,500/308,000 x 100 = 94.6%
LONG-HAUL – EAST (OCEAN)
7,700 passengers (up 1.5%)
7,700/308,000 x 100 = 2.5%
LONG-HAUL – WEST (THE CANADIAN)
4,600 passengers (down 8.2%)
4,600/308,000 x 100 = 1.5%
REGIONAL ROUTES
3,800 passengers (down 13.6%)
3,800/308,000 x 100 = 1.2%
Of course, one could argue that the long haul routes would attract a higher ridership if they ran daily. But at even double the ridership, they would still compare very poorly with the corridor train services.
Speed = distance / time laws of physics are still in effect. Trains attract far more customers when the time needed to travel a certain distance is small. And with trains limited to relatively low maximum speeds, the shorter the distance and time the better trains perform.
I believe the data above proves that point very very well.