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[quote user="BNSFwatcher"] Without First Class/Sleeping car passengers, all LD trains would be losers.  We, the hoi polloi, subsidize the "cattle car" class.  At four (+) times the coach fare, we pay for the dining car and the lounge cars... Bill Hays  --  <A href="mailto:wdh@mcn.net" mce_href="mailto:wdh@mcn.net">wdh@mcn.net</A>  [/quote] According to the Department of Transportation Inspector General's July 22, 2005 report on Amtrak, it is the other way around. Amtrak loses more money on its sleeping car passengers than it does on its long distance coach passengers.  Thus, it is the coach passengers that subsidize the sleeping car passengers.  This is the latest study of sleeping car vs. coach passenger costs; there is no reason to believe the results would be relationally different today. Sleeping car passengers have a significant presence in the dinning cars because their meals are included in the price of their accommodation charges.  They are a captive audience.  In any case, the dinning and lounge cars lose money. Only 2.2 per cent of Amtrak's passengers traveled by sleeper in 2007.  Again, there is little reason to believe that the results would be materially different today.  They account for an insignificant percentage of Amtrak's passengers.  If Amtrak were run like a real business, it would have junked the sleeping cars decades ago.    The question is not whether Amtrak should take suggestions for a sleeping car design to replace the Viewliner.  It should eliminate the sleepers and replace them with business class cars as per my previous post.
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