Long Distance Train Coach & Sleeper Fares (Buckets)

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Thanks to Trimetbusfan we now have a new low bucket Roomette fare on the CS of $486. It's available most days between now and 2 Feb 2023 for the whole route for one adult. I believe there's still another bucket around $546 out there waiting to be offered and found.

The CS Saver Coach fare is now $103.
 
Cobbled together an updated fare bucket chart for your amusement (?). Can see that with many routes now having eight buckets, the old pattern will need changing. Just squint in the meantime. :)

37 - 17 Apr 2023 Amtrak Fare Buckets.jpg
Spot checks show no changes yet for the SWC, TE, SL, CARD, LSL, CRES, CL, SILVERS or PALM.
 
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Here's an updated chart containing estimates that give each train having eight sleeper buckets the same number of Coach buckets - nine including the Saver Fare.

37.2 - 29 Apr 2023 Amtrak Fare Buckets.jpg
The EB Coach estimates are a bit "iffy" with no fares above the $306 / $308 having been found. You might say those upper five estimates are a bit of a WAG.
 
This update shows the three Saver Coach fares found for the EBs and a few other minor ones:

37.3 - 1 May 2023 Amtrak Fare Buckets.jpg
This is getting to be a real pain in the patoot!

FYI, those upper five Coach fare buckets for the EBs were estimated prior to discovery of those two lowest Saver buckets. The resulting eleven Coach buckets (including those Savers) casts some doubt on the validity of the top two estimates. But I'll leave them there for the time being.
 
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Have begun to gather data for a new chart with the recent fare increases and it appears each train has seen its sleeper fares go up by some fixed amount for all of its sleepers. So far, those increases are:

• SWC & TE, +$22
• CZ, +$25
• CARD & LSL (NYP), +$13
• CONO, +$17
• CRES, +$21
• CL +$12
• SS & SM, +$20

Most of these trains have five sleeper buckets. Those with eight buckets will take a little longer to figure out.

Don't know anything about Coach fares yet.
 
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These are the dollar increases for each sleeper bucket on the remainder of the trains:

• SL +$21
• LSL (BOS) +$14
• CS +$18
• EB (SEA) +$30
• EB (PDX) +$30
• Auto Train +$53

Based upon the simplistic average of the previous lowest Roomette bucket and the highest Bedroom bucket for each train, these dollar increases range from 1.3% for the CZ up to 6.3% for the Auto Train.

Won't fiddle with Coach fares or a new chart until the current Amtrak sale ends.
 
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Here's the most recent bucket chart for LD trains.

39 - 17 Dec 2023.jpg

• Due to uncertainty in Coach fares, only the rail fare (the additional fee charged when an additional adult is booked into a sleeper) is shown, and there's even some uncertainty in those as denoted by the [brackets]. The rail fare is found by comparing the sleeper fares for one and two adults. This process is repeated a few times and if the same difference is found the assumption is made that it will be consistent. If, however, two or more different rail fares are found, the search is repeated for additional dates and travel directions. In the case of the LSL to Boston, more than a dozen different searches were made which resulted in eight different values for the rail fare!! These ranged in value from $166 to $451 !!!!! As can be seen, uncertainties were also detected for the Auto Train.

• Uncertainties may exist in other trains but not being a glutton for punishment I didn't go wild looking for them.

• Two other noticeable changes are for the Palmetto (its Coach fares have increased in quantity from five to eight and have also DECREASED slightly in $ value) as well as the deletion of the Saver Fare.
 
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Until an updated chart is posted, please , , ,

• add estimated square brackets to the rail fare entries ( > ) for the CONO and CL and
• change the CZ's high bucket B from $3321 to $3221

There are a few other errors, but they're too small to bother with here.
 
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Mickey Mouse must have just been hired by Amtrak IT because fares on all LD trains (except the AT) just went up $1.

And I'm not going to mess with the bucket chart for a measly buck.

Edit: A quick check the next morning showed AT fares are now also up $1.
 
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Been away a few weeks and have just discovered substantial fare increases on the SWC, TE, SL, CONO and AT. All others are $1 above what's shown on the chart as noted in the previous post.

While the RailForLess website . . .https://railforless.us/ . . . should ease the task of finding new fares, don't expect an updated bucket chart tomorrow. :)
 
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