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AMTRAK
I always wanted to take a day-trip to New York City.
It's about 85 (?) miles north of Phila, so I looked into round-trip fare for two..... WoW ! No wonder AMTRAK is losing customers. $163 plus tax for a round trip fare from Phila to NYC. I think I could rent a limo for that rate...... Doesn't this seem excessive for such a short trip ? Or are my ideas of fair fare outdated ? rj |
#2
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AMTRAK
RJ wrote:
I always wanted to take a day-trip to New York City. It's about 85 (?) miles north of Phila, so I looked into round-trip fare for two..... WoW ! No wonder AMTRAK is losing customers. $163 plus tax for a round trip fare from Phila to NYC. It's $48 each way. Your travel agent is skimming $67. Also, if you have more time, you can take SEPTA + NJT via Trenton, for less than half the price. miguel -- Hundreds of travel photos from around the world: http://travel.u.nu/ |
#3
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AMTRAK
In article , Miguel Cruz wrote:
RJ wrote: I always wanted to take a day-trip to New York City. It's about 85 (?) miles north of Phila, so I looked into round-trip fare for two..... WoW ! No wonder AMTRAK is losing customers. Nah, the Northeast Corridor (NEC) is Amtrak's most profitable venture where it goes slightly above 'break even'; they use some of that money to help balance the books (the best they can) from what I understand. Amtrak's problems aren't from a lack of desire for ridership, but from: * Outdated track infrastructure incapable of higher requirements (track strength, catenary power lines, etc) for supporting significantly faster trains * Historical FRA (Federal Railroad Administration) rules putting a cap on maximum speed of 79 MPH in lots of places * Sharing tracks with slower freight trains -- freight trains try to do their thing at night or other times, but sometimes it's just simply unavoidable to need a track at the same time as a passenger train * Having to pay for retired rail workers' pension plan -- a significant chunk of Amtrak's budget; about 25%? -- even if they were freight rail workers and never Amtrak due to a federal law that has not been repealed or amended * Lack of desire by municipalities to build out rail with their transportation funds * Lack of ability in legally securing right-of-way (ROW) for expansion or significant track improvements * Mindset of car-is-king in the U.S.; Americans has a real love affair with the car, especially since there isn't as a good long distance-to-local-transit connection (or much in way of local train/subway infrastructure in most cities) * Difficulty in competiting with airlines for long distance travel (The usual solution is to market long distance trains as a luxury/vacation kind of deal, but that isn't cheap and has relatively few people doing so) All of the above and other factors combines to make it virtually impossible for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (better known as Amtrak) to ever be profitable in its present arrangement. $163 plus tax for a round trip fare from Phila to NYC. It's $48 each way. Your travel agent is skimming $67. He may have been looking at Acela Express trains both ways, which would bring the price to that ballpark... similarly for one Metroliner train with a business class fare and one Acela Express train (which has no coach class fares). Doing it as coach both ways on non-Metroliner/Acela Express trains should bring it to $100 exactly (not including tax/fees) -- did some spot checks, such as Philadelphia 30th St. station to NY Penn Station on the 19th. He should be aware that some trains will require a reserved coach ticket, and some have sold out in coach (requiring a more expensive fare class). Also, if you have more time, you can take SEPTA + NJT via Trenton, for less than half the price. Indeed. There's another possible alternative... drive to the NYC area, but not into Manhattan, park at a train station, and catch the train into the city for the day. No issues with overnight parking since it'd be a day trip. I point that out just for completeness, especially if he's price-conscious. -Dan |
#4
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AMTRAK
On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:09:20 GMT, Rita
wrote: You can get there for a fraction of Amtrak's cost on New Jersey transit. So come visit us -- it is affordable that way. Another option is going Greyhound. Michael If you would like to send a private email to me, please take out the TRASH, so to speak. Please do not email me something which you also posted. |
#5
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AMTRAK
In article , 127.0.0.1 wrote:
On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 19:37:21 +0000 (UTC), Dan Foster wrote: Nah, the Northeast Corridor (NEC) is Amtrak's most profitable venture where it goes slightly above 'break even'; not true, no AMTRAK make money, the NEC might lose less than the others but it is still a money loser Looks like you're correct. I was thinking of a specific line on the NEC which *does* make money -- in 1999, Metroliner (which the Acela Express mostly replaced) made a profit but when all of the NEC train services was added up, they lost $124 million that year even though Metroliner made a $53 million profit. Across the entire NEC, operating ratio was 1.22:1 -- that is, it cost $1.22 per $1 of revenue to run the NEC. In other words, losing money. -Dan |
#6
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AMTRAK
In article ,
wrote: WoW ! No wonder AMTRAK is losing customers. $163 plus tax for a round trip fare from Phila to NYC. That must be for the premium Acela Express service, with the fancy new high-speed trains. The slower trains (Acela Regional) are much less expensive (and not all that much slower). A few years ago I paid something like $120-$140 round trip from Washington DC to Newark NJ, which is quite a bit further than Philly-NYC. As others have noticed, you can save a lot of money (at the cost of more time) on the Philly-NYC route by taking a SEPTA commuter train to Trenton NJ and then changing to a NJT commuter train for the rest of the trip. -- Jon Bell Presbyterian College Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA |
#7
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AMTRAK
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 03:32:57 +0000 (UTC) in
rec.travel.usa-canada, Dan Foster wrote: Across the entire NEC, operating ratio was 1.22:1 -- that is, it cost $1.22 per $1 of revenue to run the NEC. In other words, losing money. and tell me which highways and airports have NO government subsidy? they lose money all the time, and have never been expected to break even. |
#8
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AMTRAK
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#9
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AMTRAK
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#10
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AMTRAK
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 12:54:05 -0500, 127.0.0.1 wrote:
On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 09:26:12 -0700, Hatunen wrote: There's nothing wrong with government subsidies, per se. IF the people want them. your statements are all well and good but in some places like NYC, the taxation to support city transit riders reaches far and wide to tax people who receive no benefits from mass transit, and that is where resentment for government subsidies begins Everyone in the regioin ultimately receives benefits from mass transit. ************* DAVE HATUNEN ) ************* * Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow * * My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps * |
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