Yes, the August monthly report is indeed a lousy report for both ridership and ticket revenue. My quick off the cuff comment attributed this to track work projects, poor OTP, and low gasoline prices, but I think there are other factors such as hitting the limits of ticket price increases and competition from discount bus services on some corridors.
Ticket revenue for August was down from 2014 and is running well below budget. However, that is being offset by expenses running less than the budget, so the adjusted operating loss is still below budget. The capital spending is running well below the authorized levels, which in the long run is not good news, because that means capital improvement projects and rolling stock acquisition are being stretched out and delayed.
Ridership and Ticket Revenue
High level look at the ridership and revenue numbers. After increase in NEC ridership in June and July, both the Acela and NE Regionals were down for ridership and revenue for the month of August compared to 2014. Don’t know what happened in August to cause because the NEC has been holding up well despite the May derailment of #188. The bad news is in the state corridors with only 3 corridor services up in ridership for August, the Empire, Surfliner and Capitol Corridor. All of the rest were down for the month of August, some of them by a lot (Lynchburg and Richmond Regionals, ouch). Track work and service disruptions were a factor for some routes, but the breadth of the drop-offs in ridership and revenue suggest it is more than that.
For the LD trains, the overall numbers are not as bad. The Empire Builder, Meteor, SWC, Texas Eagle, and the Crescent had ridership increases in August. The AutoTrain continues its recent fall-off in total ridership. However, in the route performance report, the AutoTrain was running at a net operating surplus for the year to date as August which helps to reduce the total losses for the LD trains.
Ridership and Revenue summary for the month of August:
System: ridership -3.9%, revenue: -4.9%
Acela: ridership -2.8%, revenue: -3.9%
NE Regional: ridership -3.9%, revenue -2.5%
State supported corridors: ridership -5.0%, revenue -5.4%
LD trains: ridership -1.0%, revenue -7.6%
Ridership and Revenue summary for the YTD from October to August:
System: ridership +0.0%, revenue: +0.1%
Acela: ridership -1.6%, revenue: +0.5%
NE Regional: ridership +1.9%, revenue +1.7%
State supported corridors: ridership -0.2%, revenue +0.4%
LD trains: ridership -1.3%, revenue -2.4%
Unless there was a turnaround in September ridership, FY15 system ridership will not be an increase over FY14. With regards to all the HSIPR and state funded track and route improvement projects along with the various freight railroad maintenance and upgrade projects, Amtrak is in a drawn out pain stage before the gains in reliability, track speeds, and reduction in bottlenecks start to kick in.
BTW, if I may, I like to suggest that the title of this thread be revised to Poor August 2015 Monthly Performance Report so there is clarity on which August and report this thread is about for searches.