This post is in response to Marty Jerome's post "As Public Highways Choke, Railroads Enjoy a Renaissance."
A post last week said that freight railways around the United States are once again attractive. An estimated $10 billion dollars have been invested into rebuilding tracks, buying new locomotives, and extending existing corridors. Passenger service, however, remains at a substandard level. Even though there has been major ridership increases on some corridors, Amtrak still needs a billion dollars each year, over its revenue, to fund operating costs. Amtrak carried approximately 26 million passengers in 2007 with its 21,000 miles of route. SNCB of Belgium (a country about the size of Maryland) however, carried a whopping 186 million passengers in 2004. The SNCF of France, carried 342 million railway passengers (not including the suburban train network within the Parisian region which carries 632 million annual passengers) in 2005. The American passenger railway system is far behind in ridership and needs to attract a robust ridership to pay for its billion-dollar annual shortfall. But then the question is, how should Amtrak increase ridership?
(Photo: An Amtrak Acela Express Train. Photo by Flickr user Gilliamhome's EVolt 500. Used under the Creative Commons License.)
__Amtrak needs to concentrate on corridors where railways can directly compete with airlines and cars. __Improving and speeding up service on the Northeast Corridor, which carries roughly 38% of all rides taken on Amtrak, will allow the railway to dominate the travel market in the areas served by the rails. Bay Area to Sacramento is another regional route that has a large volume of car traffic. Providing quicker and easier train connection between the two areas (and providing a hassle-free connection between different modes of transit) will help Amtrak grab some of the car riders. Long distance trains don't nearly provide the ridership needed to provide enough revenue (but that does not mean we should forget about the long distance trains).
Train travel is expensive, mirroring prices of flights and the fact that express trains in the Northeast only offer business and first class doesn't help the situation. Boston to Baltimore costs at least $140 on a 6 hour Acela Express ride, while finding a $49 flight between the same cities on AirTran or Delta is relatively simple. Acela trains should offer a cheaper coach class section to attract more than just business travelers.
Comparing Amtrak's prices to the international trains: Amtrak charges $88 per person for a 3 hour 30 minute Acela Express ride from Boston to New York (roughly 370 kilometers). On the local Regional service (4 hour trip), it costs $59. A trip roughly the same length from Paris to Limoges takes 3 hours on a local Corail train (since there is no high speed alternative on this route), but only costs €26 (38 USD).
Passengers want good service. There's no question. If Amtrak doesn't provide adequate service for passengers, then people will stop using the trains. First, the trains need to arrive on-time. Shortening the route of the trains will help with the reliability of train routes as there would be less of a possibility of delay. Negotiating to attain the right-of-way on freight tracks will be required: this is a major reason why long distance Amtrak trains are constantly delayed. In other countries, freight trains are operated by the national railway company. For example in France, the FRET freight service is owned by the SNCF, the same company that runs the passenger service. Second, like airline passengers, rail users want a hassle-free trip. In Europe, main line trains offer reservations for seats, where the car number and seat numbers are printed on the tickets. Trains in Taiwan and China also use the same ticketing method. Amtrak, however, does not in most its coach class section (despite the mention of "reserved coach"), requiring people to move about the trains in search of empty seats and space for luggage.
Amtrak needs to present itself positively to travelers and truly provide the best service possible on routes that will attract riders. Once people see that Amtrak provides a quick, cheap alternative to driving (or even flying), then the company will see a major increase in riders and revenue.
