B757Guy
Service Attendant
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2015
- Messages
- 140
Decided to mix it up a bit, and take the local commuter rail line to EWR for work today. I typically make the trek up the turnpike, and park at the employee lot at the airport, and found the train to be a decent alternative and back-up plan should the New Jersey Turnpike be fouled up. Struck up an interesting conversation with an attorney, who worked for a large private equity firm in Manhattan. We got on to the topic of NJ Transit and Amtrak, and he mentioned at one point, a few of these private equity firms looked into trying to compete with Amtrak on the northeast corridor, with an all first class type service that would travel from Penn Station, only making stops in Philly to DC.
That got me thinking, can a private firm lease track and capacity from Amtrak? I believe they own the entire stretch of the NEC? Could something like this be successful? I can't imagine the economics behind start up costs and such, as I'm just a lowly airline pilot, and not a finance guy, but it seemed to me, it would be a flop, with out subsidies or an even more outrageous fare than the Acela charges.
From what I've gathered, the Acela is almost always sold out (his words) and he suggested if Amtrak could increase capacity, would be fully profitable in the Northeast, even after infrastructure costs, salaries, maintenance, etc... No clue if this is realistic, but fun to consider...
That got me thinking, can a private firm lease track and capacity from Amtrak? I believe they own the entire stretch of the NEC? Could something like this be successful? I can't imagine the economics behind start up costs and such, as I'm just a lowly airline pilot, and not a finance guy, but it seemed to me, it would be a flop, with out subsidies or an even more outrageous fare than the Acela charges.
From what I've gathered, the Acela is almost always sold out (his words) and he suggested if Amtrak could increase capacity, would be fully profitable in the Northeast, even after infrastructure costs, salaries, maintenance, etc... No clue if this is realistic, but fun to consider...