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The September (year end) report came out today. For now I will just post a snippet of my annual ridership table with some basic notes. Record means an all time record with the number of years since. I will offer commentary at a later time. 2019 2023 2024 Acela 3,577,500 2,959,400...

Upscale people and their whimsical ideas that someone is going to pay for a high speed line through one of the largest mountain ranges in the world to their small cities aside, how difficult would it be to get service from Denver to Grand Junction? Both are crew bases (I think), the line never...

It’s all market demand. The New York market is so much bigger than the Boston one that it’s likely not all rooms sellout in the 448/449 sleeper, so it makes sense (to Amtrak, or at least it did) to offer rooms in 448/449 to cover any unmet demand on the NYC side

I should have noted that in the data. The 221% number is an anomaly. There must have been some issue with the route in August 2019. In a broader context, the route is running around its 2012 levels, so these numbers aren’t totally unprecedented. On the other hand, the train has been pulling...

If I had to guess, maybe a third (optimistically) is CHI-MKE, which would make 7,000ish, leaving the corridor still about 20,000 off.

Thank you for the validation. I started calling it that as a mistake, and stopped on the forum to avoid confusion. But I left it in my private notes, because I liked it.

Train Aug % of 2019 Acela 281,900 101% Regional 959,500 122% Ethan Allen 8,900 148% Vermonter 10,700 104% Empire West 57,300 133% Downeaster 56,700 93% Springfield Shuttle 46,200 142% Keystone 104,300 79% Empire South 123,500 114% Great River Service 22,300 New Lincoln...

That area is pretty remote and the accident was close to start of service, it was probably hit by the first train.

The August MPR is out. The full report will come later, but, for now, these routes have set annual records (or at least 12 year records, as 2012 is the earliest year I have data for.) 1.NER: 9,814,900-all time (previously 9,162,400 in 2023) Empire West: 467,300-all time (previously 452,700 in...

I was looking to book a trip to the Midwest late in February this year (not President’s day weekend) and the fares from the East to Chicago are astronomical. A round trip on the LSL from NYP to CHI is over $400 for COACH. The Floridian is about $300. The Cardinal is the typical $180. The...

As far as I know: 2 Diesel locomotives (ALC-42 or P42) 4 Amfleet II coaches 1 Amfleet II cafe 1 Viewliner II Diner 2 Viewliner Sleepers 1 Viewliner II Baggage

@acelafan There are no indications of stations with baggage service. Will the train not carry baggage, or is this an error?

While I would certainly agree that ordinarily one should take an institution at its word. Amtrak changes it’s mind almost as often as we dream. 4 years is a long time for the railroad to pretend to be strategic enough to hold down a plan.

The July Monthly Performance Report has been out for quite a while. I have been busy-apologies. As always these are monthly, not YTD figures. The following routes are between 95%-100% of July 2019 ridership (NB: comparison is with 2019 figures to better follow the twelve months pre-*****)...

It’s not just meals. The Star regularly gets to be more expensive than the Meteor due to supply and demand, as stops at RGH and TPA add significant ridership over the more rural (and direct) Meteor. There is also likely a factored in expense because a CHI-WAS sale is more likely than a CHI-PGH...

Forgive me, but I really don’t get the interest with this proposed project. Conversion to 60HZ seems that it would save a small amount on future rolling stock purchases, but if I’m understanding rightly, it would have little impact on reliability and operating expenses, cause difficulty for...

August 5th began a short jaunt up to Montréal, a “Europe in the Americas” and a place where the dollar is quite potent. The trip was a rail/bus hybrid, and seeing as this forum has relatively little about the bus alternatives to the Adirondack, I think it may be particularly relevant in lieu of...

The June ridership report was finally released. It was exceedingly boring. Almost all trains reported percentages within 3% of May, so I am not going to publish a list. There are a couple things worth noting: The NER reported YTD ridership of 7,958,000 after two months of ridership over...

Number 5 on that list is New York to Orlando, which I imagine is only the case due to people taking cheaper fares than the Meteor. I don’t think this is entirely something we’re “stuck with.” The train did relatively little NEC-FLA business. Most would rather the Meteor for that. There is also...

I, while waiting for someone to bother to publish June’s report, threw together this competitive ranking chart of MAY YTD 2019 and MAY YTD 2024. It may be neat to looks at how one’s choice routes stack up. It also helps sho national trends, the significant missing ridership on the old major...