Does Amtrak calculate unique riders?

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

Okay we all know Amtrak carried 28 million riders, but how may individuals use Amtrak?

When you buy your ticket you provide your name and a telephone # and usually an address. Does Amtrak use this information to calculate how many customers they have?

 

[rtabern]

Okay we all know Amtrak carried 28 million riders, but how may individuals use Amtrak?

When you buy your ticket you provide your name and a telephone # and usually an address. Does Amtrak use this information to calculate how many customers they have?

I have actually been curious about the same thing!! The report is that ridership is up to between 700,000 and 800,000 on the Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago every year -- however what does that number include? For example, I probably ride the Hiawatha 40-50 times a year! Am I counting as 1 person or 50 in that number? Anyone know??

 

[jmbgeg]

Okay we all know Amtrak carried 28 million riders, but how may individuals use Amtrak?

When you buy your ticket you provide your name and a telephone # and usually an address. Does Amtrak use this information to calculate how many customers they have?

It would seem to me that a software solution would easily get to that answer.

It would be useful to know:

-Year to year increase or decrease in customers traveling on Amtrak

-Underlying trends in changes in long distance and commuter customer counts

With ridership up, it would be interesting to know how frequent travelers making more train trips vs. increases in the total number of customers compare in contribution to higher ridership.

 

[Shawn Ryu]

And how many are trips earned by using Amtrak Guest Rewards program?

 

[battalion51]

Unfortunately this is somewhat hard to do given the fact that you would need a unique identifier for each individual. Those of us that ride frequently and have AGR are easier to separate from the herd, but those who don't are more tricky. There's a large number of duplicate names possible (think about how many Lauren Smith's there are in the world), add to that the number of folks who pay cash, and have an agent type in their name that may or may not be correct. I'm sure it's possible to ballpark it, but to get a truly accurate count would be challenging at best.

 

[the_traveler]

And if you travel from say Baltimore to Hermann, MO - on a Regional, the CL, LS and MORR - are you counted as 1 passenger or 4 passengers?

And round trip, are you counted as 2 or 8 passengers?

 

[PRR 60]

And if you travel from say Baltimore to Hermann, MO - on a Regional, the CL, LS and MORR - are you counted as 1 passenger or 4 passengers?

And round trip, are you counted as 2 or 8 passengers?

You're counted as four passengers each way: eight total.

 

[the_traveler]

You're counted as four passengers each way: eight total.

I'm not THAT big!

(Well, maybe my head is!

)

 

[Pastor Dave]

When we do our annual extended family trips not everyone books their own travel. So other than a name for a ticket, there is no other identifying information provided. So I'm not sure how Amtrak could identify unique riders.

 

[the_traveler]

When we do our annual extended family trips not everyone books their own travel. So other than a name for a ticket, there is no other identifying information provided.

I'm not sure what you mean by "not everybody books their own travel". Even though you (or someone) books the travel plans, the tickets are issued to "David Smith", "Jane Smith", "Susan Smith", "Jack Jones", etc... for each portion of their travel. So there is identifying information provided!

 

[ryanwc]

I have actually been curious about the same thing!! The report is that ridership is up to between 700,000 and 800,000 on the Hiawatha service between Milwaukee and Chicago every year -- however what does that number include? For example, I probably ride the Hiawatha 40-50 times a year! Am I counting as 1 person or 50 in that number? Anyone know??

Well, you certainly count as at least 50, and not 1. But depending on what you mean, you may count as 100 - do you board 40-50 times or do you take 40-50 round trips? The 7-800,000 figure is the number of one-way rides provided (well, make that 'paid for'.)

The number you're asking about would be very interesting. But the figure they give is a more important figure. I would love to see unique rider figures, but not at the expense of 'ridership'.

 

[Pastor Dave]

When we do our annual extended family trips not everyone books their own travel. So other than a name for a ticket, there is no other identifying information provided.

I'm not sure what you mean by "not everybody books their own travel". Even though you (or someone) books the travel plans, the tickets are issued to "David Smith", "Jane Smith", "Susan Smith", "Jack Jones", etc... for each portion of their travel. So there is identifying information provided!

I guess what I'm saying is that in the past aside from the person booking the trip, who provides address and phone $,the only information given has been the names of the others - no phone or address. I would think you would need much more than name to identify someone as a unique traveller.

 

[Crescent ATN & TCL]

When we do our annual extended family trips not everyone books their own travel. So other than a name for a ticket, there is no other identifying information provided.

I'm not sure what you mean by "not everybody books their own travel". Even though you (or someone) books the travel plans, the tickets are issued to "David Smith", "Jane Smith", "Susan Smith", "Jack Jones", etc... for each portion of their travel. So there is identifying information provided!

I guess what I'm saying is that in the past aside from the person booking the trip, who provides address and phone $,the only information given has been the names of the others - no phone or address. I would think you would need much more than name to identify someone as a unique traveller.

Since you provide a name and an address/phone, you could assume only one John Doe has 555-5555 or lives at 5 Oak Street in Town, State. I know they could also use Credit/Debit card #'s as Walmart has flat out said they track purchases made with credit/debit/checks, i.e. what store, what items.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

I know they could also use Credit/Debit card #'s as Walmart has flat out said they track purchases made with credit/debit/checks, i.e. what store, what items.

Apparently some insurance companies and employers are looking to buy access to this data and make adjustments based on your shopping history. If you purchase alcohol or cigarettes or certain quantities or types of medicine then your insurance rate might go up or you might be declined for that next job. Never mind what you actually did with any of your purchases; there are few protections from this sort of invasion of privacy and the few that do exist are likely to be repealed over time.

 

[battalion51]

Back to the original point, there is precedent in other industries. For example in the restaurant business you work off of a cover count. If you go to a restaurant they will generally enter the number of guests at a table and enter it in their POS. Managers and Analysts (like me) will track things like average check, traffic patterns, sales performance, etc. based on cover counts. So in theory if you eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner in our restaurant you're three covers (one for each meal) but still one person. Same philosophy in hotel rooms, most look at room nights, not reservation length for planning purposes. The movement of check ins and check outs is relevant for staffing reasons, but for revenue management it's all about room nights.