What is going on?? High Buckets.. On a SUNDAY??!!

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Acela150

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Ok AU'ers, time to bring up the question of why in the world are buckets so high on a Sunday?? As the Topic Title states..

For those of you who pay attention to the trips forum, you will have noticed that I'm booked on 132 from PHL-RTE on the 21st of this month. The bucket that is listed is $183. Most Acela's and Regional's are at the highest bucket if not the second from highest. There's only one or two trains that aren't high bucket. So I raise the question, What is going on in the NEC on the 21st? I've tried looking on some city websites to see if there is anything going on. Couldn't find anything.

I'll throw in a little bonus to the topic. The top bucket for AE between PHL and BOS area is now $267! and the FC Upgrade is $119! 5 years ago the FC upcharge was around $100! Thank Amtrak for Upgrade Coupons!! :)
 
One possible reason for high buckets on Sundays:

Get out of town on Friday after work and get back Sunday to go to work the next day!
And it's just not nearby dates. I was looking for a turn in OCTOBER to BOS to connect to #67. Even 3 1/2 months early, the later regionals on Sunday night into BOS are at mid to high bucket!
 
And it's just not nearby dates. I was looking for a turn in OCTOBER to BOS to connect to #67. Even 3 1/2 months early, the later regionals on Sunday night into BOS are at mid to high bucket!
The NYP to BOS section of the NEC is going to need increased capacity in general and where is that going to come from, besides longer Regionals, in the near term? The May 2013 monthly report is out and shows a drop in Acela ridership and a small increase in NE Regional ridership for the year to date. But the NEC has had multiple service interruptions with Sandy and the Boston Marathon bombings and Metro-North derailment on the NYP-BOS end, which led to lost ridership and revenue.

For Sundays, if the 39 train a day restriction on the Shore Line East applies to all 7 days of the week, Amtrak could add a Regional or Acela train to the schedule to take advantage of the demand (although MNRR and the NHV Line track projects may be a problem). There is room under the 39 train limit on weekends. Not so on weekdays.
 
Lots of folks spend weekends in summer months visiting friends and relatives in other cities, so try to get their return travel on Sunday evening. This is still very common on airlines -- Sunday evening flights coast to coast are often jammed with passengers -- summer and other months -- who may have extended a business trip over the weekend to visit friends/relatives.
 
Sundays in summer are busy in the mid-Atlantic states too... as well as Sundays later in the year when university students are going back and forth.
 
I noticed that fares on the Silvers went up by 2-4% (at least for the city pairs I typically look at). A low bucket roomette from WPB to WAS was like $220 or $221, now it's $225. And the low bucket fare for a roomette from WPB to JAX was $80, now it is $82. The rail fare is also a few bucks higher than what I paid.
 
Sundays have been super high bucket for quite a while (ETA on the NEC). I have also noticed that they start off high and then get cheaper as you get closer to the date, I am assuming based on sales.
 
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Yes Sunday PM travel on NEC always been a high priced affair. And those train can sell-out too. Often I would have to travel via MNNR from NHV because of that.
 
guess people who can't afford these fares are going to migrate to MegaBus more and more...
 
guess people who can't afford these fares are going to migrate to MegaBus more and more...
Frankly, if they're selling out and can't add more capacity, Amtrak is being wise in selling it as high as they are. Amtrak still has the speed advantage along with reliability (in general.)

I see all public transit building up in that corridor - Amtrak, Megabus, Greyhound, and the plethora of other carriers. I'm very glad to see that...it means that people are relying on cars less and seeing public transit in general as an option. That's good for both bus services and train services (such as Amtrak.)
 
I too noticed the increase in price in the Silvers and Crescent. I think that small increase was across the board. Most of my trips on those trains though are between 15-79. Usually the increase is only a couple of dollars.
 
I'm doing NYP-WAS for $98 RT that same day. That's for a reserved coach seat.
 
I wanted to change to an earlier train today. I started checking yesterday and everything was high bucket on the acelas to BOS from NYP.
 
Amtrak is going to have to order new single-level coaches soon. And lots of them. At this point, such an order may even be in the "pays for itself" category, like the Viewliner diner replacements were.

Until there's more rolling stock, the prices will keep going up as demand goes up.
 
Nathaniel, I have to agree with you. 130 new Viewliner II's and only 25 of them are sleepers. Is there any move to fund the 70 additional cars that the CAS USA contract mentioned? Would some of them be coach cars if Amtrak did buy them?

I wish there were more Superliner sleepers and coaches being built, I may live in the DC metro area, but my favorite Amtrak trips are out west. But the NEC is where the money is.

Amtrak is going to have to order new single-level coaches soon. And lots of them. At this point, such an order may even be in the "pays for itself" category, like the Viewliner diner replacements were.

Until there's more rolling stock, the prices will keep going up as demand goes up.
 
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Nathaniel, I have to agree with you. 130 new Viewliner II's and only 25 of them are sleepers. Is there any move to fund the 70 additional cars that the CAF USA contract mentioned?
None that I am aware of at the present time. Amtrak will be facing some difficulty just paying for the 130 given the budget squeeze.

Would some of them be coach cars if Amtrak did buy them?
No
I wish there were more Superliner sleepers and coaches being built, I may live in the DC metro area, but my favorite Amtrak trips are out west.
I wish so too.

But the NEC is where the money is.
Not that much. Only the 70 ACS-64s for NEC at present. The Viewliners are for LD.
It would be interesting to see how Amtrak finally lands up funding the Acela IIs and the Amfleet replacement when the time comes.
 
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