Bush change of heart?

[Midland Valley]

With the recent remarks of Mr. Boardman, saying Bush and Mineta are willing to compromise on Amtrak Funding and that it "won't be zero"; are we seeing a little backpeddling from all the heat placed on the administration?

 

[Guest_Amtrak_flyer]

Not at all. I read the article he states the same thing Mineta has stated all along. Amtrak will be funded "if" it makes the necessary changes. Those changes we can assume means dumping all the long distance routes. You have to remember the NEC really needs 1.2-4 billion just by itself. The long distance trains which carry half of Amtraks passengers only cost 350 million plus or minus or about 25 percent of what the NEC needs for operations, repairs etc.

Whats going to be interesting is if Amtrak IS funded at 1.2 billion again this year the Amtrak board probably still will cut all the long distance routes anyway. Having Bush's people on the Amtrak board is the BIG problem here. I dont even think they've submitted a budget to congress yet.

Now more then ever we need to contact our members of congress. Tell them bills to fund Amtrak should include language that Amtrak maintain nationwide service. Unless that language is included in the appropriation I think Amtrak's Board will start cutting service in the coming year.

MAKE THOSE CALLS NOW, THINGS ARE GOING TO START HAPPENING IN CONGRESS SOON.

 

[PRR 60]

The long distance trains which carry half of Amtraks passengers  only cost 350 million plus or minus or about 25 percent of what the NEC needs for operations, repairs etc.

Long distance trains do not carry half of all Amtrak passengers. Not even close. Try just under 16%, or one in six. By contrast, nearly half of all Amtrak riders rode NEC trains. And one in three rode trains supported by the states.

In Fiscal Year 2004 (October 2003 to September 2004), Amtrak carried 25.1 million passengers. The breakdown by type of service is:

Northeast Corridor: 11.3 million (45.2% of all Amtrak passengers)

State supported trains: 8.1 million (32.3% of all Amtrak passengers)

Other short distance trains: 1.8 million (7.0% of all Amtrak passengers)

Long distance trains: 3.9 million (15.5% of all Amtrak passengers)

Gee, if the NEC carried 4 times as many passengers as the long distance trains and needs 4 times the support, that seems just about right, doesn't it?

 

[Trogdor]

How many passenger-miles were ridden on the NEC last year? What about long-distance trains?

 

[PRR 60]

How many passenger-miles were ridden on the NEC last year?  What about long-distance trains?

Oh, now there is a really good question. I wish I knew the answer. Amtrak publishes a 100+ page performance summary each month, but nowhere in that summary is there a breakdown of Revenue Passenger Miles by route or train type. It is a perfectly valid and important statistical comparison, but Amtrak does not publicly publish the data.

Based on separately published data for the month only, here is my best stab at the comparison:

Month of September, 2004

Acela, Metroliner, & Regional RPM: 111,448,000

All Amtrak RPM: 398,891,000

So the portion of the NEC represented by the Acela, Metroliner, and Regional (excludes Clockers) provides about 27% of all Amtrak RPM. What was the % for the long distance trains? Sadly, I haven't a clue. I expect, given the very fact that it is "long" distance, the RPM count would be pretty high.

Another comparison is ticket revenue (FY2004). This is a stat that Amtrak publishes on a route basis.

NEC: $674 million (54% of all Amtrak ticket revenue)

State supported: $169 million (13% of all Amtrak ticket revenue)

Other short distance: $71 million (6% of all Amtrak ticket revenue)

Long distance: $343 million (27% of all Amtrak ticket revenue)

So, even though the NEC represents about 27% of all Amtrak RPM, it generates 54% of all ticket revenue.

By the way, Acela and Metroliner alone brought in half, $335 million, of all NEC ticket revenue and 27% of all Amtrak ticket revenue. That is why the health of the Acela and Metroliners is so important to Amtrak.

All this is not to trivialize the long distance trains. But any suggestion that the long distance trains provide anything approaching the passenger or revenue impact of the NEC is simply incorrect.