Samantha wrote: blue streak 1 wrote:We may no longer have the high gas prices that will go down after the effects of IKE are worked out. I could not believe it but today petroleum prices below $100/ barrel today. Wonder what this is going to do to all transit ridership.Samantha..... any ideas?In July and August the price of gasoline peaked at roughly $3.90 per gallon in the Austin area, with a variance of as much as 10 cents a gallon in other parts of the state. Since then the price has fallen back to $3.50 per gallon, although it jumped up to $3.60 a gallon as a result of Hurricane Ike. I expect it will decline again as the refineries that were shut down to ride out the storm come back on-line.Ridership on my bus line, as well as across the board for Capital Metro in Austin and DART in Dallas, is up by 12 to 15 per cent over last year. Based on my observations, which are not supported by any hard data, there has been a little slippage in ridership but not much. If the price of gasoline stays in the $3.50 to $3.60 range, I suspect that many people who have parked their cars in favor of public transit will leave them parked. However, if the price of gasoline falls below $3.00 a gallon, I think that there will be some erosion in public transit ridership in Texas. Most Texans, if they can afford to drive, will do so. This is partly due to culture and partly due to poor public transit systems in most of the state's cities.
blue streak 1 wrote:We may no longer have the high gas prices that will go down after the effects of IKE are worked out. I could not believe it but today petroleum prices below $100/ barrel today. Wonder what this is going to do to all transit ridership.Samantha..... any ideas?
In July and August the price of gasoline peaked at roughly $3.90 per gallon in the Austin area, with a variance of as much as 10 cents a gallon in other parts of the state. Since then the price has fallen back to $3.50 per gallon, although it jumped up to $3.60 a gallon as a result of Hurricane Ike. I expect it will decline again as the refineries that were shut down to ride out the storm come back on-line.
Ridership on my bus line, as well as across the board for Capital Metro in Austin and DART in Dallas, is up by 12 to 15 per cent over last year. Based on my observations, which are not supported by any hard data, there has been a little slippage in ridership but not much.
If the price of gasoline stays in the $3.50 to $3.60 range, I suspect that many people who have parked their cars in favor of public transit will leave them parked. However, if the price of gasoline falls below $3.00 a gallon, I think that there will be some erosion in public transit ridership in Texas. Most Texans, if they can afford to drive, will do so. This is partly due to culture and partly due to poor public transit systems in most of the state's cities.
I wouldn't mind if Metra revives the F40Cs. If it's clostly, then Metra should purchase 4 former Amtrak P40DCs like NJ Transit did. Also, Gas Prices went down because the Presidential elections are approaching (It was like $4 earlier in the year and when we got closer to the 2008 Elections the price of gas went down.The oil companies try their best to minipulate the Elections.) After the Elections I believe the price of gas will go back up.
Apparently two F40C'c are still on Metra property; but I have no idea about their condition other than they look clean. Being 40+ years old, I don't what their status would be vis-a-vis FRA regs.
Such a unit with higher initial tractive effort may be more suitable for local, all-stop schedules. The added weight works against fuel efficiency at higher and sustained express speeds.
With gas prices the way they are will Metra revive the F-40C's to give increase service capacities? It could be the quickest way to add capacity to an already stressed service. I know they have several still sitting in the yards of scrap companies. They have already started buying back old commuter cars to increase passenger capacities but you will hit a point where more cars will not work due to station size and engine capacity.
EMDF40CFAN
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