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The Texas Eagle switches two cars to or from the Sunset Limited at San Antonio.  It is done without a switcher. The cars are at the end of their respective trains.  At San Antonio the westbound Sunset Limited, for example, backs down and couples onto the two transfer cars from the Eagle.  The process is reversed for the eastbound train. In FY12 the average load factor for the long distance trains was 62.4 per cent.  The average load factor for the Empire Builder was 61.5 per cent.  Undoubtedly the train is sold out on some days, especially during the busy summer and holiday travel seasons.  Whether there is enough spillover, i.e. a person who wanted space and could not get it, to justify another car is unknown.   The westbound train has coach seats on ten different bookings from Chicago to Minot that I ran from August 28th through September 28th, although the lower level coach seats were sold out on two of the dates. Roomettes were available for all 10 bookings, but the bedrooms were sold out on several days.  The cost of the roomettes ranged from $356 to $408.  One could get a very good hotel room for that amount of money. The cost of a coach seat on the Builder from Chicago to Minot is $318 return.  The cost to fly return is $406. The train takes approximately 18 hours, 20 minutes.  Flying takes 3 hours, 45 minutes. If the train traveler eats in the lounge car, it will set him back approximately $40, thereby bringing the cost of the train travel to $358. A few oil field workers might take the train to Minot. Knowing some of the workers in the Eagle Ford operations (San Antonio), which are relatively close to where I live, I doubt it would be many. Most of these folks are relatively young. They will drive to the fields or fly. If the North Dakota oil fields are anything like the Eagle Ford and west Texas ones, which are booming, many of the workers will tow a RV trailer to the work-site so that they will have a place to live.
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