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[quote user="SyntheticBlinkerFluid"] Hi all, new to the forum. I looked back several pages and didn't see a similar thread, so I figured I would ask.  Could long distance passenger service be cheaper? I want to ride the train out to San Diego to visit my brother. It is a little over $400 coach for two adults one way. However, I thought that maybe the wife would like a roomette since the trip is about 48 hours. To select it adds almost $800. To add a bedroom is $1100. Wow. I understand you are riding on a hotel on wheels, but I think that it's a bit overpriced. You're taking a longer trip (time wise) and you think it would be a bit cheaper, like a few hundred dollars cheaper. I know I'm probably probably reaching for the stars, but it would make a huge difference in ridership I would think. Is there a breakdown of what goes into the price of these rooms? [/quote] Amtrak knows how much the rooms cost the company and how to price the services.  However, as far as I know, it does not make this information available to the public. The cost would include residual depreciation, maintenance, labor, materials, and overheads. The price is determined by what Amtrak's management believes the travelling public will pay. Amtrak uses a yield management system to price its rail services. This is why the prices change almost daily. Amtrak would only be justified in lowering the prices for its long distance trains if the cost of doing so was more than offset by the incremental increase in ridership and revenues. Amtrak has offered a variety of promotional fares to improve ridership and revenues on the long distance trains, but no matter what it does, it is losing heaps of money on them. In FY 10 the long distance trains lost $575.5 million before depreciation, interest, and miscellaneous charges.  By comparison the NEC earned $51.5 million before depreciation, interest, and miscellaneous charges.  For FY 12 the loses on the long distance trains had climbed to $600.9 million whilst the operating profit for the NEC rose to $281.9 million. Whilst the cost structures for the NEC and short corridor trains are headed in the right direct, the cost structure for the  long distance trains is headed in the wrong direction. However, as I noted in another post, the federal subsidy for the long distance trains, or Amtrak for that matter, is low per taxpayer, citizen, etc.  For this reason, as well as a variety of political factors, it appears that the long distance trains will be with us for a long time to come.  Twenty years from now, I suspect, the long distance train routes will look pretty much like they do today.
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