Amtrak/Metrolink Rail 2 Rail Program A Sucess

Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum

Help Support Amtrak Unlimited Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

AlanB

Engineer
Honored Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2002
Messages
28,402
Location
Queens, New York
More than 86,400 passengers have taken advantage of Metrolink, Amtrak and The California Department of Transportation's new "Rail 2 Rail" joint ticketing program since its launch last Fall.  This multi-faceted program allows Southern Californians more train travel options through better connectivity and joint ticket acceptance.  
This only serves to prove the fact that if you give people frequent convenient choices, they will take the train. As has been mentioned many times on this forum, it's that lack of daily service that hurts the Sunset Limited and the Cardinal. Additionally on a several of the daily runs, if there were more choices, there would be more riders. Just look at the Silver Service. :)

Here's another interesting quote from the same article.

For the first four months of the program, Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner posted record ridership with 615,532 passengers taking the train.  This is a 20.1% increase in overall ridership from the previous year, including Metrolink pass holders.
You can read the full Amtrak press release by clicking here.
 
AlanB said:
More than 86,400 passengers have taken advantage of Metrolink, Amtrak and The California Department of Transportation's new "Rail 2 Rail" joint ticketing program since its launch last Fall.  This multi-faceted program allows Southern Californians more train travel options through better connectivity and joint ticket acceptance.  
This only serves to prove the fact that if you give people frequent convenient choices, they will take the train. As has been mentioned many times on this forum, it's that lack of daily service that hurts the Sunset Limited and the Cardinal. Additionally on a several of the daily runs, if there were more choices, there would be more riders. Just look at the Silver Service. :)

Here's another interesting quote from the same article.

For the first four months of the program, Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner posted record ridership with 615,532 passengers taking the train.  This is a 20.1% increase in overall ridership from the previous year, including Metrolink pass holders.
You can read the full Amtrak press release by clicking here.
Unfortunately, however, I have doubts as to whether this type of program would work in the east. Amtrak runs concurrently with seven different commuter railroads between Virginia and Massachusetts, and it would be impossible to coordinate with all of them the way Amtrak and Metrolink get along. The commuter railroads would have to work together, possibly even have a uniform fare instrument and means of collection.

I was thinking this might work in southeastern Florida, where there is one commuter railroad (Tri-Rail) and Amtrak. But then I remembered that Amtrak has a closed door policy in Tri-Rail's territory; that is, Amtrak only picks up northbound and drops off southbound at West Palm Beach and all points south to the Miami station.
 
Superliner Diner said:
Unfortunately, however, I have doubts as to whether this type of program would work in the east. Amtrak runs concurrently with seven different commuter railroads between Virginia and Massachusetts, and it would be impossible to coordinate with all of them the way Amtrak and Metrolink get along. The commuter railroads would have to work together, possibly even have a uniform fare instrument and means of collection.
I was thinking this might work in southeastern Florida, where there is one commuter railroad (Tri-Rail) and Amtrak. But then I remembered that Amtrak has a closed door policy in Tri-Rail's territory; that is, Amtrak only picks up northbound and drops off southbound at West Palm Beach and all points south to the Miami station.
All that may well be true. However I was simply thinking about the fact that, if you give people frequent and convenient choices of times to catch the train, then they will take the train.

Commuter RR's would have nothing to do with increasing ridership on a daily Sunset or Cardinal. Just look at the overall numbers for the Eagle when it went daily. Yet the one thru train where only the Eagle went to LA without joining the Sunset failed. :( Why because it wasn't daily, and passengers found it too confusing :huh: and inconvenient for their travel needs.

Yes it would also be great if Amtrak could work out Metrolink type deals in other parts of the country too. But the simple fact is that Congress and the White House should be planning how to add more Amtrak trains. Not trying to figure out how to cut Amtrak trains, without being blamed by the voters in their districts so they can get reelected. :angry:
 
Alan,

Yes, the rail 2 rail program is a real hit here in So. Cal. I use it all the time, especially now that regular unleaded gasoline is over $2.00 per gallon. Now if we could only get the LAX\LAS Vegas service started. Just think what a relief it would be on I-15. Sunday afternoon a major traffic accident closed I-15 for 5 hours, with 40 miles of backed up traffic. This State really needs rail service between LAX and LAS.

Wb
 
Wouldn't it be nice if the LAX-Las Vegas rail service ran at 110mph right down the middle of I-15? What would motorists think of THAT? :D :p :lol:
 
I think the I-15 freeway would be wide open except for the truck traffic. I believe Amtrak could support 2 or 3 trains a day Northbound to Las on Fridays, and the same frequecy Southbound to LAX on Sundays. On weekdays, maybe only 1 departure each way, or maybe schedule the service for Mon, Wed, and Friday, Sat and Sunday only.

Wb
 
They could probably be able to get away with one or two Talgo Trainsets if that is what they decide to use on that corridor. As for the Tri-Rail share program, that would not work well for a few reasons. First we skip about 3/4 of their system, and next it would be a nightmare for our Conductors to have to worry about those damn commuters. Also a kink in the process is that Herzog (losers) runs Tri-Rail, not Amtrak. In the Metrolink situation Amtrak operates Metrolink so it is responsible for the fares one way or another.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top