BaltACD If your mode of transportation is no fun, the customer will select some other means of transportation.
If your mode of transportation is no fun, the customer will select some other means of transportation.
This whole business model seems to disagree with that statement.....
https://www.spirit.com
https://www.flyfrontier.com
https://www.allegiantair.com
Not "fun". Just basic, cheap transportation. Heck airlines in general are blasted for not being a great experiance any more. And yet.....
https://www.bts.dot.gov/newsroom/2017-annual-and-december-us-airline-traffic-data
"The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that U.S. airlines carried an all-time high number of passengers during 2017 – 849.3 million systemwide, 741.6 million domestic and 107.7 million international – surpassing the previous high reached in 2016 "
All of them provide a service, and fun is not it.
An "expensive model collector"
n012944 BaltACD If your mode of transportation is no fun, the customer will select some other means of transportation. This whole business model seems to disagree with that statement..... https://www.spirit.com https://www.flyfrontier.com https://www.allegiantair.com Not "fun". Just basic, cheap transportation. Heck airlines in general are blasted for not being a great experiance any more. And yet..... https://www.bts.dot.gov/newsroom/2017-annual-and-december-us-airline-traffic-data "The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that U.S. airlines carried an all-time high number of passengers during 2017 – 849.3 million systemwide, 741.6 million domestic and 107.7 million international – surpassing the previous high reached in 2016 " All of them provide a service, and fun is not it.
We have seen those kinds of carriers come and go over the years. If they still exist in 5 to 10 years I will be amazed. Every year one or more of their ilk go belly up stranding thousands of paid passengers where they don't want to be. The only thing they are selling is price, on the surface, and then they rob you with everything else as a 'added cost option'.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD n012944 BaltACD If your mode of transportation is no fun, the customer will select some other means of transportation. This whole business model seems to disagree with that statement..... https://www.spirit.com https://www.flyfrontier.com https://www.allegiantair.com Not "fun". Just basic, cheap transportation. Heck airlines in general are blasted for not being a great experiance any more. And yet..... https://www.bts.dot.gov/newsroom/2017-annual-and-december-us-airline-traffic-data "The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that U.S. airlines carried an all-time high number of passengers during 2017 – 849.3 million systemwide, 741.6 million domestic and 107.7 million international – surpassing the previous high reached in 2016 " All of them provide a service, and fun is not it. We have seen those kinds of carriers come and go over the years. If they still exist in 5 to 10 years I will be amazed. Every year one or more of their ilk go belly up stranding thousands of paid passengers where they don't want to be. The only thing they are selling is price, on the surface, and then they rob you with everything else as a 'added cost option'.
You should probably prep yourself to be amazed.
https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2018/06/19/ultra-low-fare-airlines-are-among-most-profitable.html
n012944 BaltACD n012944 BaltACD If your mode of transportation is no fun, the customer will select some other means of transportation. This whole business model seems to disagree with that statement..... https://www.spirit.com https://www.flyfrontier.com https://www.allegiantair.com Not "fun". Just basic, cheap transportation. Heck airlines in general are blasted for not being a great experiance any more. And yet..... https://www.bts.dot.gov/newsroom/2017-annual-and-december-us-airline-traffic-data "The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) reported today that U.S. airlines carried an all-time high number of passengers during 2017 – 849.3 million systemwide, 741.6 million domestic and 107.7 million international – surpassing the previous high reached in 2016 " All of them provide a service, and fun is not it. We have seen those kinds of carriers come and go over the years. If they still exist in 5 to 10 years I will be amazed. Every year one or more of their ilk go belly up stranding thousands of paid passengers where they don't want to be. The only thing they are selling is price, on the surface, and then they rob you with everything else as a 'added cost option'. You should probably prep yourself to be amazed. https://www.bizjournals.com/chicago/news/2018/06/19/ultra-low-fare-airlines-are-among-most-profitable.html
Old phart that I am - I have heard and seen it all before - and then came bankruptsys!
NKP guy It's also a fact that this train has not been advertised in any Ohio newspaper in many years, let alone on social media, or TV and radio. If no one knows about the service it can't be grown. It's a fact that the loss of the dining car is having a negative impact on riders and discourages ridership. It doesn't help that this train, and the Capitol, for that matter, are so frequently late that they have become non-dependable as transportation options.
This reply is directed to everyone, not just NKP guy.
I guess it's time to be blunt. Many of you are acting like "current Amtrak leadership must be stupid because of all the mistakes they are making that discourage ridership"
What I'm saying is, maybe "stupid" isn't the right descriptor? Perhaps they are actually smarter than you give them credit for, and are intentionally trying to sour the well BECAUSE THEY ARE LOSING MONEY ON EVERY PASSENGER, and have determined that discouraging ridership is the most effective way to reduce costs?
The freight railroads used to do all kinds of "dis-service" to their own passenger business when they wanted to discontinue service on a particular line. They wanted to get patronage as low as they could so they could justify their petition for discontinuation with hard data showing a very low patronage for the targeted train.
Why is it so hard to believe that the current group are doing anything different?
As I have said before - Anderson was brought to Amtrak to KILL it. Nothing more and nothing less.
blue streak's thread is a textbook case (preceding Anderson) of part what is wrong on Amtrak that is not Amtrak's fault, something you all tend to overlook. Here is a train that is constantly late, "stabbed" by a freight railroad. There are others. Who, other than foamers "looking for an experience," would choose this train for transportation, which BTW, is the purpose of Amtrak as stated in the original law, not for fun.
What is a foamer?
Maybe Anderson is trying to fix Amtrak. It does not take much of a business person to see that it is the long-distance trains that are dragging Amtrak down.
If Amtrak could get rid of the long-distance trains and focus on the NEC, with several possible extensions off of it, it might be a viable business enterprise.
Discontinuing the long-distance trains probably is not doable because of the politics. The next best thing would be to scale them to the market.
Approximately 85 percent of the long-distance passengers are coach class. Maybe the best way forward would be to eliminate the dining cars and sleepers, which are costly to buy and staff, and run the long-distance trains with coaches, lounge cars with upgraded food service, and business class cars configured like business class on the overseas airline flights.
Well then, I am more than ready for him to start!
Convicted OneWhat I'm saying is, maybe "stupid" isn't the right descriptor? Perhaps they are actually smarter than you give them credit for, and are intentionally trying to sour the well BECAUSE THEY ARE LOSING MONEY ON EVERY PASSENGER, and have determined that discouraging ridership is the most effective way to reduce costs?
I can agree with your analysis.
So, instead of describing Amtrak's president & his Board as stupid, let's cut to the chase and more correctly term this sort of behavior as evil. In either case, it's leading to the same end: no LD trains and eventually no Amtrak. I may be wrong, but I don't think they have a mandate from Congress to do this.
If the real aim, as Balt says, is to Kill Amtrak, why not just announce that and see how Congress feels about it? To do it by 1000 cuts instead is cowardly.
So there you have it: Anderson & the Board are, professionally speaking, evil cowards (and self-serving evil cowards, at that).
Now let the predictable replies that in effect say, "No, this all makes good business sense", begin.
NKP guy 1). I may be wrong, but I don't think they have a mandate from Congress to do this. 2). If the real aim, as Balt says, is to Kill Amtrak, why not just announce that and see how Congress feels about it? To do it by 1000 cuts instead is cowardly.
1). I may be wrong, but I don't think they have a mandate from Congress to do this.
2). If the real aim, as Balt says, is to Kill Amtrak, why not just announce that and see how Congress feels about it? To do it by 1000 cuts instead is cowardly.
1 I think that the creation of Amtrak stipulated that it become self supporting within a certain time frame, or be eliminated. Anderson et al might counterargue that their predecessors have "weaseled" around that provision, and they are merely making the required correction?
2. I so often feel as though I'm being misled through deception and subterfuge that I can't do your question justice without violating the board's prohibition on political discussion. So, let me just say 'sometimes it takes a weasel to kill a weasel', and let your imagination take it from there?
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