http://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/234/741/Amtrak-Monthly-Performance-Report-January-2013.pdf
The Jan 2013 report has aome interesting points and may require critics to make a final push to cripple AMTRAK before the general public can realize AMTRAK's importancje.
Points are year over year unless otherwise noted
1. Page A-3.1 NEC revenue up 13.3% Acela up 14% spine 12.5%
ridership 4.9 % Acela 5.4% spine 4.9%
2. Vermonterr up 8% + but not meaniful due to Irene in 2012.
3. Keystone up 10%
4. Downeaster ridership up 3% & revenue up 7.5%. There was no fare rise so approximately 4.5% of riders probably rode its extension.
5. Lynchburg up 6.5% during historic low month of year
6. Since Norfolk and Newport News routes are close to parallelwill combine results to look for pattern. Newport News was flat at 39,000 and Norfolk had new 10,000 riders. Total revenue $2.0 M vs $2.5 M.
7. Pennsylvanian ridership down 10%
8. LD ridership up 1.5% and revenue up 7.7%
9. Now the rise in total ridership on the NEC bodes well fo it and the other routes that showed rises. The loss of riders in other locations may be partially explained by theJanuary winter storms. Have no explanation of the 20% Auto train increase ?
Now for a very controversial observation.
1. The numbers in the PRIIA for the Silver Meteor apppears that adding one car to a low level train operating costs' are about $13,000 per month..
2. By Jsn 2014 the new single level sleepers and baggage crew dorms may start to operate on the low level trains.
3. Assuming --- that for simplicity sake --- calculations that one sleeper is added to each existing train set. 20 cars to cover the 20 train sets would increase the sleeper revenue by 50% assuming the sme load factor and fares.
4. That would add approximately $2.5 M per Jan month each year or apparently $84 M ++ per year. Since Januarys are the low point revenue month each year maybe ~~ $100 M per year.
5. There will be additional costs due to maybe an additional sleeper attendant and 10,000 riders per month adding what ?? $300,000 dinning room costs ? for total costs additions of ~~ $4 M ?
6. There has been no attempt to factor in additional revenue from the baggage dorms at this time.
.
Streak,
Thanks for bringing these statistics showing generally more Amtrak riders to our attention. However, critics argue both ways against Amtrak. If Amtrak looses money they argue it is too expensive. If Amtrak makes money they argue that government has no business in a profit making operation and Amtrak should be auctioned off.
The good part of this is that they have been making these arguments for many years now and, while they have wounded Amtrak, they have never been able to kill it. The bad part is that with the current political climate they have gained strength in the House. But even there we do have a President who does not share their views about Amtrak.
John
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