neroden
Engineer
http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/855/870/Amtrak-Monthly-Performance-Report-July-2014.pdf
Things I noted:
- the catastrophic collapse in on-time performance isn't hurting ridership or revenue as badly as I'd expect. This could just be a delayed-response issue, but it also could mean that the underlying latent demand for train service is just so high that it's swamping the results of the poor performance.
- On "loss per passenger mile", for July, the so-called "long-distance" trains are starting to sort out almost entirely on the basis of how many seats per day they offer, with the longest trains doing best. The extra coach has been very good for Auto Train. The Silver Meteor is doing about as well as the Palmetto. Next in line (by this measure) are the Empire Builder and the Lake Shore Limited -- despite all the troubles! So, during peak season at least, it seems that Amtrak is primarily capacity-limited, and comes close enough to filling every seat it runs at good prices. Longer trains are just pure revenue at this point, at least in July. The benefit of the extra sleeper on the Cardinal is obvious from the numbers as well.
- It is noted by Amtrak that the best-performing "long-distance" train segments are those overlapping with "corridor" trains. Not surprising. Together with everything else, this reinforces my belief that Amtrak should continue to focus heavily on improving the routes it runs on (longer trains, more frequencies, more passenger-priority track), rather than starting additional routes.
Things I noted:
- the catastrophic collapse in on-time performance isn't hurting ridership or revenue as badly as I'd expect. This could just be a delayed-response issue, but it also could mean that the underlying latent demand for train service is just so high that it's swamping the results of the poor performance.
- On "loss per passenger mile", for July, the so-called "long-distance" trains are starting to sort out almost entirely on the basis of how many seats per day they offer, with the longest trains doing best. The extra coach has been very good for Auto Train. The Silver Meteor is doing about as well as the Palmetto. Next in line (by this measure) are the Empire Builder and the Lake Shore Limited -- despite all the troubles! So, during peak season at least, it seems that Amtrak is primarily capacity-limited, and comes close enough to filling every seat it runs at good prices. Longer trains are just pure revenue at this point, at least in July. The benefit of the extra sleeper on the Cardinal is obvious from the numbers as well.
- It is noted by Amtrak that the best-performing "long-distance" train segments are those overlapping with "corridor" trains. Not surprising. Together with everything else, this reinforces my belief that Amtrak should continue to focus heavily on improving the routes it runs on (longer trains, more frequencies, more passenger-priority track), rather than starting additional routes.
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