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[quote user="John WR"] Finally, while all of Amtrak's metrics are important I have not heard any suggestion of deliberately misrepresenting any statistics by Amtrak.  [/quote] Intentional misrepresentation of statistics by Amtrak's management?  That's pretty harsh!  Putting spin on the numbers or not telling the whole story.  Happens all the time. Amtrak trumpets the increase in ridership and revenues without addressing costs.  It only presents one side of the financial ledger.  Or Boardman has told the Congress that Amtak recovers 88 per cent of its operating costs through the fare box.  But fails to mention the capital costs, which are part of the financial statements.  Failure to disclose the complete picture is misrepresentation in my book.  Practically everyone, however, spins the numbers to make his or her cause look good. But it is not being honest! I suspect Amtrak can run a report on the number of customers that it has.  So too could the airlines, bus companies, cruise ship operators, etc., thanks in large part to the power of computers.  These organizations report passengers, as opposed to customers, and therefore tend to imply that they have more customers than is the case.   I have submitted a FOIA request for NEC segment load factors and the number of Amtrak's customers. It will be interesting to see what I get and how much Amtrak will bill me for the information.  Mercifully, they have to give me an estimate of the cost before digging out the information. If it is too much, I won't buy it. The DOT counts licensed motorists.  One license, one motorist, although some license holders may not drive.  But most of them do.  DOT reports vehicle miles traveled because it is difficult to know how many people are in the vehicle.  There have been attempts to get a count of the average number of people in a vehicle, but it is a challenge to come up with an accurate number.
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