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Amtrak's comparative market share of commercial passenger transport along the NEC needs explanation.   Amtrak's share of the NEC market has been increasing.  It is not true, however, that Amtrak carries more passengers between New York and Washington than the airlines.  Amtrak compares the whole New York to Washington NEC market to alternate commercial forms of passenger transportation. It counts passengers for intermediate points along the NEC, i.e. New York to Philadelphia or Philadelphia to Washington, for example, in its comparative numbers.  But the market for the airlines is New York to Washington.  They offer practically no flights, for example, from the New York metropolitan area to Philadelphia or other intermediate points except for passengers connecting in New York or Washington for overseas or national flights. Another comparative point that is left out of the picture is the cost.  Amtrak does not cover its fully allocated costs for the NEC, or any other operation for that matter, with the possible exception of the Lynchburg service, whereas the airlines and bus companies must cover their fully allocated costs and provide a return to their shareholders. In Fy10 The Downeaster had an average load factor of 32.7%.  Undoubtedly, it was probably sold out on a few occasions.  More often than not, however, it ran with light loads.  In any case, the load factor was not sufficient to cover its costs.  In FY10 it lost $1.9 million before depreciation and interest. The average FY10 load factor on the state supported and other short distance corridor trains in FY10 was approximately 41 per cent.  The Lynchburg service had a load factor of 51.4%.  It had an operating profit of $2.1 million.  It was the only route outside of the Acela routes to cover its operating costs and earn an operating profit.   The load factors do not support the contention that Amtrak's routes are constrained by equipment shortages.  Clearly, on select dates, especially holidays, some trains may be sold out.  But it does not happen very often.   Amtrak's accountants probably have the numbers to show the incremental costs of adding an additional car to a train.  I too wish that they would publish them, but they are not likely to do so because most people would not understand how they get the numbers.   The key question is whether the incremental cost of additional capacity is offset by the incremental revenues.  And it is not just the cost of running another car.  It is the depreciation, interest, and storage cost of the additional equipment that may sit idle for most of the year.  If these costs were covered by additional revenues, I suspect that Amtrak would increase its capacity.  After all, given the pressure that it is under from numerous sources, it should be happy to demonstrate to Congress that it can increase its revenues and reduce its subsidies by more effective management of its capacity.
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