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If Amtrak carried 120 million passengers

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[quote user="Dixie Flyer"] If Amtrak carried 4 times the current 30 million peasengers a year and lost 4 times the current losses (say 6-8 billion per year) how would we feel as the American people, as taxpayers etc.  There would be no tri-weekly trains, most routes would have two or more trains each way, corridors would have 6-9 trains each way and there would be more corridors, most of the pre 1979 routes would be back plus a few more giving us a system similar to the ilnterstate highway system. What are your thoughts? [/quote] Here is another thought to muddy the water. In FY11 Amtrak lifted 30.2 million tickets plus or minus a standard accounting error. Amtrak refers to this number as its passengers or riders. But how many customers (individual persons) did Amtrak have in FY11? Assuming that 75 per cent of Amtrak's passengers traveled roundtrip on the train, i.e. New York to Philadelphia and back to New York, the maximum number of customers would have been approximately 18.9 million.  And that assumes each customer made only one trip (one way or roundtrip) during the year, which is probably not true. There are many people in the NEC, unless it has changed dramatically since I lived there, who ride a NEC Amtrak train numerous times throughout the year. I certainly did. Accordingly, the number of Amtrak's customers, as opposed to passengers, may be few than 15 million. Comparatively, in 2011 there were approximately 210 million licensed motorists in the U.S. Most though not all of them drive. Some are permanently out of action because of age; others are temporarily out of action because of illness, etc.  These numbers suggest two key points.  Amtrak really is a minor play in intercity passenger transport. And getting to 120 million passengers, riders, ticket holders or whatever you want to call them would be a huge challenge.
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