Latest press release from Amtrak (found this on Facebook). Numbers up system-wide on this time last year.
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?b...ership_FY10.pdf
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/BlobServer?b...ership_FY10.pdf
Amtrak Ridership on Record-Breaking Pace
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Ryan
Court Jester
I just came here to post the same thing (I had trouble finding the link to post).
There are some really fantastic numbers in there, the Crescent and Cost Starlight seem to have really low growth - I wonder if that's because the ridership has always been high that there hasn't been that much room for growth?
There are some really fantastic numbers in there, the Crescent and Cost Starlight seem to have really low growth - I wonder if that's because the ridership has always been high that there hasn't been that much room for growth?
stntylr
OBS Chief
It's very good news. The problem is Amtrak lacks the extra equipment to take advantage of it. I was on the TE Monday taking a short trip with my daughter and that train was close to being full. I know the sleepers often sell out on it. It would be nice if Amtrak could add an extra coach and sleeper but where would those railcars come from?
G
Guest
Guest
There have been several times where I have not been able to buy a seat on the Crescent at all. The entire train gets sold out. I mean if I can't buy a ticket and others can't buy tickets there is no room for growth since there are no extra cars added.
Amtrak can thank the airlines for creating a mode of travel that is filthy, congested, unhealthy and dehumanizing. The underhanded tactics of adding baggage charges don't help either. I feel like an animal when I use the airlines. When I arrive I feel drained and tired.
Let's not forget that Amtrak also competes for the low end traveler business that takes the dirt cheap and nauseating bus rides.
Lastly the budget conscious motor touring crowd may take a new look at the rails when gas goes over $4.00 per gallon this summer as forecatsed.
I predict that in a few years Amtrak will have a sizable portion of trips 500 miles or less (they already own the NE corridor business) and a good market share of trips 1000 miles or less.
As for cross country, that will always be airline territory but what is most surprising is that long distance trains are experiencing a 16% increase over last year.
All factors seem to indicate that it will be a good year for rail travel.
Let's not forget that Amtrak also competes for the low end traveler business that takes the dirt cheap and nauseating bus rides.
Lastly the budget conscious motor touring crowd may take a new look at the rails when gas goes over $4.00 per gallon this summer as forecatsed.
I predict that in a few years Amtrak will have a sizable portion of trips 500 miles or less (they already own the NE corridor business) and a good market share of trips 1000 miles or less.
As for cross country, that will always be airline territory but what is most surprising is that long distance trains are experiencing a 16% increase over last year.
All factors seem to indicate that it will be a good year for rail travel.
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MattW
Conductor
I hope someone bites the Viewliner RFP soon and they start squirting new cars off the assembly line soon. Give me a few million dollars, a factory, some workers and I'll bite! 
Bingo! Amtrak is limiting it's own growth by turning away potential customers from "Sold Out" trains. They should be measuring how many people are turned away... That would tell them their growth potential!
Amtrak just doesn't have the equipment to expand the trains or handle more passengers. Once they sell out that's it. They might have a few coaches to add to the regional lines but no extra diners or sleepers are available. Amtrak has not purchased new equipment in years but might in the near future.
G
Guest
Guest
Well they can take the ratio of reservation page visits to actual sales for non sold out trains and then apply it to the page visits for sold out trains to project that potential. That wouldn't be perfect, but folks that specialize in revenue management should be able to tell exactly the potential. Really no train should be sold out any earlier than a few minutes before it leaves the station. I know Amtrak can't just pull equipment out of nowhere so that means fares should be adjusted higher. Selling out weeks ahead is just throwing away potential revenue.
While this wouldn't work for coach, Amtrak could make it a habit of putting up a message everytime there are no rooms available of telling people to call and be added to the waitlist for sleeper rooms. That would provide a very accurate indicator of how many missed sales they had for sleepers.
The thing that I find even more impressive is the fact that not only are the numbers up against last year, but they are up against the 2008 numbers. 2008 was a banner year because of the $4.00 gas prices, which is why last year's numbers when coupled with the recession fell short of surpassing the 2008 numbers.
So to be beating 2008 with only $3.00 gas and just barely starting to turn the corner on the recession is really impressive.
So to be beating 2008 with only $3.00 gas and just barely starting to turn the corner on the recession is really impressive.
abcnews
OBS Chief
I recently looked into a trip to Florida on the Star or Meteor out of Richmond, to catch some spring baseball- both were sold out on the dates I needed to travel. No coach seats and no roomettes. I was kind of glad to see that.
JSmith
Service Attendant
Wow, the Lake Shore Limited March ridership is up 17% from last year. Wonder if that has anything to do with the earlier Easter, though. Or maybe it's due to the full diner!
Amtrak really needs to buy new cars and locomotives. These kinds of numbers really show that there is a demand for additional frequencies, and increased frequencies would make the train an even better choice - a virtuous circle! Right now, if I want to take the train to visit my uncle in Cleveland, I have to ask him to pick me up at 3:30 AM. I would be infinitely more likely to choose the train if there was a daytime version of the LSL, or a corridor train extension of the Empire Service that went to Cleveland.
For all the fuss about 200 mph HSR, I would be just as happy if we could get our system up to, say, British standards of 100 mph trains running hourly or more frequently to just about everywhere.
Amtrak really needs to buy new cars and locomotives. These kinds of numbers really show that there is a demand for additional frequencies, and increased frequencies would make the train an even better choice - a virtuous circle! Right now, if I want to take the train to visit my uncle in Cleveland, I have to ask him to pick me up at 3:30 AM. I would be infinitely more likely to choose the train if there was a daytime version of the LSL, or a corridor train extension of the Empire Service that went to Cleveland.
For all the fuss about 200 mph HSR, I would be just as happy if we could get our system up to, say, British standards of 100 mph trains running hourly or more frequently to just about everywhere.
Perhaps the increase in train passenger traffic could also be attributed to the fact that like most of us here, people are slowly discovering that unlike airlines, train travel is not intrusive, restrictive or confining, but convenient, spacious, and comfortable. On many routes viewing the scenery also makes for a fun trip and you have SPACE to walk & breathe. The advantages are many but beyond 1000 miles you really need to dedicate far more time for the trip. On these overnight trips you can sleep in a bed while you travel, wake up, shower and be at your destination to enjoy the day but on cross country routes you'll need 4 days and 3 nights to get there. Thats a bit too much travel time for most folks. Although LD train travel was up 16%, I would guess that it is on the overnight routes like the CL, LSL, CST, AT, and not on the cross country EB and CZ, trains.
JSmith
Service Attendant
Well, looking at the chart, March 2010 ridership compared to 2009 was up 16.4% for the EB and 20.6% for the CZ. But when you look at the Oct-Mar figures, it's only 3.3% and 1.1%, so not much of an overall improvement there. But the March figures are really substantial increases over a year ago across the entire system.
Long-distance train travel will remain a niche market for a while, at least until the airlines totally self-destruct, either because of increasingly absurd security paranoia or just from oil prices getting too high to allow cheap air travel anymore.
Amtrak is getting some additional capacity this year and next with the stimulus funding to repair and/or convert 60 Amfleet and 21 Superliners cars and return them to service. The Acelas will get a modest increase in passenger capacity with the rebuilding of the cafe cars over the next several years to add 27 additional revenue seats (and one ADA seat). The Acelas do frequently sell out between NYP and PHL, so any boost in capacity there for the higher priced Acelas will add nicely to the revenue stream. There are also the Talgo orders which will add some new trainsets to the Cascade route and in Wisconsin which will add capacity there and may free up some Horizon and Superliner cars for use elsewhere.
If Amtrak can get the Viewliner II order funded and awarded, that will help boost sleeper capacity for the eastern LD trains between the sleeper and trans-dorm cars, but that will have a small effect on the total ridership numbers. The order is mainly to replace baggage and diner cars, but that can help to boost ridership on the LD trains by providing a better experience for those who have not been regular Amtrak customers. Viewliner IIs are years away from starting to enter service, so they won't help in the short term.
Without new coach cars, either single level or bi-level, in the pipeline or close to being ordered, Talgo may be a major beneficiary and in a position to land additional orders in the mid-West as HSR funding expands service and adds (well, restores) routes to the Chicago hub network.
delvyrails
Train Attendant
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- Oct 22, 2008
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When the demand increases. the immediate response should be to utilize the existing rolling stock more intensively by revising the service and schedules. There have been many discussions on how to accomplish this in this and other forums.
BuzzKillington
Service Attendant
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- Mar 2, 2009
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I know the LSL has added at least one car to it's consist. i think that started for the Thanksgiving rush and was kept on after... giving more room for growth.
Shouldn't there be a lot of stimulus cars being added to the roster? That should add capacity to the crowded and sold out trains.
Shouldn't there be a lot of stimulus cars being added to the roster? That should add capacity to the crowded and sold out trains.
For the website, when a "sold out" train pops up for someone searching to buy a ticket, a new window could pop up and say "Would you have purchased this trip if the train wasn't sold out? Help us tell Congress we need more equipment by clicking the Yes button."
For folks calling in, the representative can ask the customer the same question verbally and put it in the computer.
The 16% jump for the Cascade may be a bit misleading since they ran two trains daily to Vancouver in February to meet the demand for the Olympics. Next year will be a bit more accurate but I'm happy to see they're keeping the second train on through the summer, at least (thanks to our customs folks). Clearly there is a demand for the service.
True, but figuring out to optimize management and deployment of equipment assets is a more complex series of trade-offs than many of the posts in those discussions or threads would accept or acknowledge. One thing that should help Amtrak with total passenger car capacity are the increased overall funding levels and revenue. More money for maintenance should keep more cars available for service and not sidelined for a long time waiting for repairs. Would be interesting to see fleet availability numbers from a few years ago versus this year.
TransitRider
Service Attendant
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- Sep 30, 2009
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- 107
3rd daily train may happen, then you can thank to Vancouver !
The 16.4% increase for the Cascades service is for a 6 month period, so it is more than just the Olympics. The March 2010 numbers are up 11.4% versus March 2009 numbers which is in the post Olympic period.
Looking the March 2010 versus March 2009 numbers, one can see why Amtrak touted them in press release. Up across the board with the minor exception of special trains. The 6 month Oct-March numbers are not quite as impressive as some services are down or flat from last year, most notably the Capitol Corridor and Surfliner services as they are among the highest ridership services. But the state of the California economy is a big factor for those two services. The March to March increase, though, could be an indicator that the CA economy is starting to recover.
The most impressive at first glance in the March to March set is the Carolinian which was up a whopping 82.9%, but a check of the FY09 March ridership report shows that the ridership in March 09 was way down due to track work. The 6 month comparison is more balanced with a very respectable 9.6% increase. The Washington-Lynchburg numbers of 11,365 riders for March and 55,025 for the first 6 months are really impressive. The new service is on track for 100,000 riders - depending on whether there is a big fall-off come summer with a drop-off in college student passengers - in the first year. That and the DC to Richmond & Newport News numbers says that if Virginia can land more HSR funding to fix and speed up the DC-Alexandria-Richmond-Petersburg line, Amtrak can use the Regionals connecting to the NEC to extend & expand service and really boost ridership numbers to Richmond, Newport News/ Norfolk/ VA Beach area, NC triangle cities, and Lynchburg-someday Roanoke.
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