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[quote user="Paul Milenkovic"] I tend to side with Don Oltmann on all of those expense-account business passengers on the Acela.  If these captains of industry, Masters of the Universe as it were, deem to spend their expense account dollars on a premium train instead of the NY-DC Shuttle, maybe there is something to the NARP party line of the train providing downtown-to-downtown service, of providing laptop plugs and tables and valuable in-transit work time.  As to the buck-a-mile NY-Philly per-mile ticket cost, maybe Amtrak can charge that much because the train is providing that much value, at least to somebody. On the other hand, that the Acela is covering its direct operating cost and contributing to the cost of operating the tracks, and does this by charging taxi-fare levels of ticket prices, maybe that speaks to the fact that for whatever reason, trains happen to be a high-cost way of generating passenger miles.  And the Acela is a train without baggage cars, crew-dorm, sleepers, lounge car, diner, etc -- apart from the panache of being the Acela, it is pretty slim on amenities appreciated by the Lucius Beebe's and E.M. Frimbo's of the world. That is, the high cost train competes successfuly, confirming all of NARP's talking points about trains, where the alternatives, say taking a plane from NY-Philly or fighting traffic on the NJ Turnpike is even higher cost and less convenient.  That said, maybe the proper application for the train is where such high fares can be charged, and in markets that don't support fares at that level, the train is misapplied. <div style="clear:both;"></div> [/quote] When a person rides on an expense account, he is not spending his or her dollars.  In most instances he or she is spending someone else's dollars, i.e. clients, customers or victims of government services, i.e. IRS. Amtrak can charge more than a dollar per mile between Philadelphia and New York because there is no comparable premium commercial service for all practicable purposes.  It is less than 90 air miles from Philadelphia to Newark or the Long Island airports.  Most of the flights are very expensive and, in fact, are intended as connecting flights for overseas travelers.  Or at least it appears that way.
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