-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
QUOTE: Originally posted by Paul Milenkovic Don Oltmann: I am really interested in the matter of Amtrak load factors and fuel economy because of the burgeoning debate. Various "right-wing Amtrak and rail critics" give numbers and arguments why rail doesn't measure up, but you have to run those articles "through a filter" because they have a political platform. I am trying to work off numbers from government agencies which should be at least neutral on this. I followed jeaton's suggestion of going to the Amtrak Monthly Financial Statements, which is rough sledding because they are huge things to download and a lot of their spreadsheets are turned sideways. They place a big, big emphasis on riders (a "political" metric) and the sort of railroad operations numbers of passenger miles, load factors, train-car miles are buried someplace. They seem to be reporting 55 percent summer load factors, about 45 percent year-round load factors -- that is great news because you can't push load factors much higher without really making Amtrak travel inconvenient and unavailable. But they were reporting an annual fuel/electric bill of 180 million dollars, and assuming they are paying a wholesale/before road tax fuel/energy price of about a dollar per gallon of gas equivalent, and dividing into their fiscal-year passenger miles, I came up with 25 passenger miles per gallon, which squares with the Oak Ridge boys (the ORNL-DOE report). I want to keep working on getting better numbers because those numbers are key to answering Amtrak critics. How do the different types of train (long-distance, NEC, other corridor) do on fuel use, car-miles, passenger-miles load factor. The pro-Amtrak side needs hard numbers, not pro-train sentiments, and if the numbers are mixed, some favorable others unfavorable, we need to know what they are and face the facts.
I tried to sell my two cents worth, but no one would give me a plug nickel for it.
I don't have a leg to stand on.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
Quentin
QUOTE: Originally posted by Dunkirkeriestation He wants to pay for the maintance of the track but the operation of the trains would be contracted out? Okay here while we are at it lets just fund the US Post Offices Buildings and contract out the actual Mail Delivery to Federal Express or UPS? Does he know that Amtrak Rents track from Freight railroads at exorbante Rates?
Living nearby to MP 186 of the UPRR Austin TX Sub
Have fun with your trains
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