Fare Buckets - and when do they increase/decrease?

[Bonser]

Yes,housing is outrageous as well. Still, paying over $3000 for a 48 hour ride on the Empire Builder is outrageous and obscene. Obviously,you and I won’t pay it. I still maintain that charging that kind of price is price gouging and greed Why can’t Amtrak yield management lower the high bucket? Why can’t it be done?

Traveling by bedroom was always a luxury few could afford since railroads started offering them. Yes, they had a larger supply of bedrooms in the 1920's-1950's, but they also had. a far greater demand rail was the only means of long distance travel.

 

[Bob Dylan]

One more time. Compare the price of premium travel in the USA vs Canada. AMTRAK is 40% less than VIA.

Not as much as you think! The Looney is weak right now against the Greenback, so the exchange Rate for those with American Dollars gives us a big discount when visiting the Great White North!( especially in the Winter when Discounts are more frequent on VIA)

 

[zephyr17]

Traveling by bedroom was always a luxury few could afford since railroads started offering them. Yes, they had a larger supply of bedrooms in the 1920's-1950's, but they also had. a far greater demand rail was the only means of long distance travel.

And the by far the vast majority of Pullman travel in the day was by business travelers on expense accounts. People that paid it themselves were generally wealthy or at least upper middle class. Leisure travelers also were largely not the target clientele.

 

[MARC Rider]

Not as much as you think! The Looney is weak right now against the Greenback, so the exchange Rate for those with American Dollars gives us a big discount when visiting the Great White North!( especially in the Winter when Discounts are more frequent on VIA)

True, except you wouldn't believe the prices of hotels in Toronto, even accounting for the currency conversion.

 

[MARC Rider]

From my PRR NY-Chicago timetable:

New York - Chicago was $58.20 for a compartment (bedroom?), equivalent to $1,032.50 in today's money. Plus, you would have to pay extra for meals, even if they were a lot better than flex. And that was during the height of the Depression, when I'm sure business travel was down.

I think there's a limit to my complaints about that $497 ticket I bought on the Lake Shore Limited a couple of years ago.

The main problem with Amtrak long distance service is they can't run the trains reliably and on time. I don't think that was as big a problem on the PRR of yore, the "standard railroad of the world."