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[quote user="Dakguy201"]   <blockquote> <div><img src="/TRCCS/Themes/trc/images/icon-quote.gif" /> PNWRMNM:</div> <div>   I am not a computer expert, but this is part of yield management which the airlines have been doing for decades. It should not be dificult to write a routine that captures inquiries that could not be fulfilled due to being sold out. One could argue that this would overstate lost sales and I would agree since to capture degree of interest would be difficult.   <div style="clear:both;"></div>   </div> </blockquote>   Amtrak is already using a yield management computer software to administer their bucket pricing system.  I would think that a byproduct of that system is insight into the point in time at which a long distance train is substantially sold out.  From that knowledge is should be a short step to adding accomodations to existing consists on an incremental basis and observing ridership data.  Of course, that depends upon having an adequate equipment pool, which is not presently the case. Asking the rest of the country to pony up for multibillion projects in the Corridor, such as the new Hudson River tunnels (can you say "son of Big Dig?"), while starving Amtrak of the equipment necessary to operate the LD trains is not a political strategy that is going to be viable in the long run.  [/quote] Lets suppose that I call Amtrak's reservation center and inquire about sleeper space from Austin to Chicago for date X.  It is sold out because the last space is taken between Little Rock and St. Louis. OK, I say.  I am retired. How about a roomette on X+1.  OK, you got it.  Amtrak lost a passenger on X because of a first class space constraint, but not for X+1.  Doesn't sound like a good reason to add extra space on X, especially if a significant percentage of passengers would flop over to another date. Based on my observations (I always travel in a sleeper when the trip is overnight), a significant portion of the folks traveling in a sleeper are retired or have flexible travel schedules.  So Amtrak loses a passenger for a given date but not forever.   In scene two I call the reservation center and inquire about the cost of sleeper space to Chicago from Austin.  The clerk tells me that there is no space on X, but there is space on X+1.  I decide that the price is too high, irrespective of the space constraint, and I hang up.  I would not have bought the space irrespective of its availability.  How do you classify this situation, given the unlikelihood that you would know the real reason for my failure to pursue the reservation? In scene three I go on-line and check the sleeper space from Austin to Chicago on X as well as multiple future Xs.  X is sold out.  But I decide that sleeping car accommodations are too pricey for my budget, and I book a coach ticket.  The system can determine that I opened the room dialogue box, but it does not know whether I considered a roomette, family room, or bedroom.  Or whether I was seriously interested in booking sleeper space or just checking it out.  Since the system shows upon opening the dialogue box whether sleeper space is sold out, it does not now appear to have any way to determine whether I am serious about getting sleeper space or just looking.  It would not know whether I was serious unless it asked me to click on the accommodation and then told me that the space was sold out.  Which would not make for a very friendly site experience. I worked for a large electric utility.  We have a call center.  And we were concerned about dropped calls. Based on the nature of the successful calls, we use statistical models to draw conclusions about the dropped calls, but that was all they were.  We did not know what the callers who hung up before being served wanted.  We could only assume. Unless there was a massive power failure due to one of the ice storms that slams north Texas from time to time.  Then we had a pretty good idea why they were calling.
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