Is there an "off" season for ridership?

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picnic42

Train Attendant
Joined
Mar 23, 2011
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37
Location
Frankfort, Kentucky
After taking a wonderful vacation and enjoying the 4 trains we traveled on (which was part of the vacation). We have come back home still with all the enthusiasm we had before we left. We can't wait to get back on the train and ride again!

Every train we rode, announced as we boarded, that it was a sold out train... all seats have been sold. The Cardinal, The Southwest Chief, The Coast Starlight, and the California Zephyr, all had similar announcements. Even when I booked this trip in January I was told some trains were approaching sold out. When booking the Southwest Chief I was told to not hesitate, but to book now due to the high volume of Boy Scouts that ride that train to one of their Camps! (yes that train was packed with boy scouts... snacks in the lounge car were sold out early LOL)

This leads to the question... when is a slack time to ride these "Western" trains? (is there a slack time?)

Way back in the "day" I used to have the luxury of sleeping in two seats... even as late as 2001 I took a train to Texas and did not have a person sitting next to me.

Is ridership UP so much that all or most of the seats are ticketed and used?

If anyone has a thought of when the western trains are lightly traveled, let me know. (Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Empire Builder)

Thanks

Ralph
 
I find February and March to be the off season. Combine that with my love of cold and my old Jewish cheapness and that's usually when I travel.
 
I have anecdotal evidence that, for the Empire Builder, there is no "off" season. There are days with lower passenger loads (e.g., the middle of the week), but no real "off season."
 
I always found that October to March were the quietest months, excepting major holiday events like Xmas, etc. Not so long back, the railpass was priced differently, cheaper for the quiet off peak period I mentioned above. Tuesdays to Thursdays do tend to be less busy also.

Ed :cool:
 
Based strictly on my experience I find that January, ( last two weeks) ,February and the last three weeks of September tend to have the fewest Sold Out LD Trains! Tuesdays and Wednesdays generally seem to have the lighest passenger loads! ( airlines follow the same models when it comes to finding deals!)

amsnag.net ( developed by one of our AU members) is a great tool for finding the lowest fares for up to 30 days @ a time and 11 months in advance!
 
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I rode the California Zephyr in early-mid December a few years ago, and it was nowhere near full. I rode it a couple of weeks ago and it was packed with wait lists for breakfast and lunch.
 
pennyk said:
I rode the California Zephyr in early-mid December a few years ago, and it was nowhere near full. I rode it a couple of weeks ago and it was packed with wait lists for breakfast and lunch.
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Just what I was going to say, Penny. My normal travel time is between early November and the Christmas holiday, not too close to Thanksgiving, and passenger load is usually pretty light. But as the OP asked, I have noticed that trains are running with more of a load than they did 10-15 years ago, which I am glad for (it's good for Amtrak)!
 
jimhudson said:
Based strictly on my experience I find that January, ( last two weeks) ,February and the last three weeks of September tend to have the fewest Sold Out LD Trains! Tuesdays and Wednesdays generally seem to have the lighest passenger loads! ( airlines follow the same models when it comes to finding deals!)

amsnag.net ( developed by one of our AU members) is a great tool for finding the lowest fares for up to 30 days @ a time and 11 months in advance!
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I suspect you were right, I had to move a trip to the end of January and the prices were excellent (like a few hundred less than before) going from WI to FL.
 
We often travel from the East Coast to San Francisco in early November and find

availability on most of the Western trains.
 
If you look at the system ridership numbers, there is a clear decline for the months of January and February, On a month basis, those are the down months for traffic system-wide. If we had the numbers available on a week by week basis, I expect the dropoff would run from the second or third week in January to early March. But that is system-wide; the ridership decline is likely to be noticeable in Chicago and the Northeast as winter kicks in, but not so much for the California corridor services (if at all for obvious reasons). For the LD trains operating out of Chicago, January and February are regarded as the off months, but I have not reviewed the numbers in detail in the monthly reports.
 
When I started my return from California on the SWC and LSL at the end of October 2012 and Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy was wreaking havoc in the northeast, many people were stuck at airports all over the country because of the storm.

The trains were half empty, and in the few days it took to get from west to east, by the time I got home, the storm was gone. I thought that if they had just taken the train instead of waiting at airports, ....
 
picnic42 said:
If anyone has a thought of when the western trains are lightly traveled, let me know.
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January-February. (Not early January.) February is the lightest-ridership month for Amtrak as a whole, and also on almost every long-distance train. (I am told that the Silver Service has heavy February ridership, but pretty much nothing else.)
 
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January through early March tend to be the "slow" season. Late September and October also tend to be slower. November and December are a mixed bag: You have heavy pulses at Thanksgiving and Christmas, with lulls elsewhere in the month.

The Silver Service trains behave a bit differently, as does the Auto Train, but that's because Florida is a year-round destination due to a relatively stable climate (and due to snowbirds).
 
Anderson said:
January through early March tend to be the "slow" season. Late September and October also tend to be slower. November and December are a mixed bag: You have heavy pulses at Thanksgiving and Christmas, with lulls elsewhere in the month.

The Silver Service trains behave a bit differently, as does the Auto Train, but that's because Florida is a year-round destination due to a relatively stable climate (and due to snowbirds).
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Although the traffic is somewhat directional depending on the season, except for the Disney traffic of course. :)
There are also a very large number of families that are spread out between the Northeast and Florida providing for a certain level of ambient traffic all year round.
 
I always ride at the end of january or the first two weeks of february on the ld trains heading west from Chicago to Seattle,LA,Frisco and they were never full.The roomettes were never full.Observation car would get busy at times but I could always get a seat.
 
I'd say that those who stay in New Jersey were the ones who are nuts!

The smart Jerseyites ( sp?) Are the ones that have moved to Florida like several of our AU friends have done!☺
 
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I agree if be nuts to stay in Jersey if my business wasn't here. But id move someplace nice, like Nome, AK, or Marquette, MI, or Reading, PA, not Florida!
 
Green Maned Lion said:
I agree if be nuts to stay in Jersey if my business wasn't here. But id move someplace nice, like Nome, AK, or Marquette, MI, or Reading, PA, not Florida!
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They conduct business in Florida Lion and the Taxes are much Lower and the weather is Much Better in the Winter!!!

Why do I live in Texas then?,My family is here and its still fairly cheap to live when you're retired! If it wasn't so expensive I'd live in California or Hawaii! (I dislike Cold!)
 
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