For what it is worth, there are also cases where Amtrak could seek to improve "through-ticketing" revenue. There is frankly no good reason that Saratoga and North Creek shouldn't be in the timetable (or any other co-located tourist train that goes somewhere) and/or available for through-ticketing (e.g. a ticket which is NYP-SAR on Amtrak and then SAR-North Creek on the Saratoga and North Creek). Long-term I'll grant that All Aboard Florida, Texas Central, and whatever form CAHSR ultimately takes may be a slightly different kettle of fish...but working to co-list services in exchange for nominal referral fees would seem to be worth it for both parties. My understanding is that Ed Ellis would absolutely LOVE this and that the hangup is on Amtrak's end.
Texas Central is not going to be subtracting ridership from any existing Amtrak route as far as I can see. So why should Amtrak not integrate its through-ticketing or at least schedule enquiry system. Somebody wishing to ride from say Chicago to Houston might find the combination Texas Eagle + Texas Central to be of interest. Not too different really to somebody doing Orlando - Boston and changing from the Silvers to Acela.
FEC might be a tougher one because it does directly siphon ridership off Amtrak, because the stations are not co-located, and because anybody arriving on a Silver Service is not going to have any advantage by changing to FEC to go to Miami for example. The time required to change stations in Orlando would probably eat any time savings.
But if Amtrak can make a percentage off FEC ticket sales by being a booking partner, why not just offer it anyway?
More important than high speed schemenes, I think Amtrak could benefit by through ticketing to at least the major commuter rail systems.
I agree that there's no reason Amtrak shouldn't work to cross-list Texas Central (and indeed if TC goes to Fort Worth there's definitely room for some through traffic onto the Heartland Flyer); I expect the possible hangup to involve questions of STB oversight with respect to through ticketing.
FEC is a more complicated animal for a host of reason. You're right that the time needed for a station swap will probably knock out most time savings on the Meteor; on the Star, on the other and, a significant advantage will probably exist (especially if SunRail starts running with a higher frequency). My thinking there is more in the context of a highly plausible (though by no means guaranteed) Jacksonville extension, since FEC would likely offer direct service to St. Augustine, Daytona Beach, and Cocoa in particular (versus either messy Thruway links or having to drive from Amtrak) as well as faster times even if you plug in an hour or so for a change of station in Jacksonville (which will likely be less of a mess than Orlando would be for that).
The problem with commuter systems in general is some of their payment systems (you'd likely need them to adopt Amtrak's ticket scanners, for example, or program the Quik-Trak machines to issue a relevant ticket...and probably add in a few hundred destination codes for all those stations). That being said, (1) I agree and (2) I have
no clue why Amtrak hasn't at least
tried to manage this whenever they get a commuter contract (and they've had quite a few contracts over the years...Caltrain, MBTA, MARC, and VRE all come to mind at various times.
@Keelhauled (since I don't want this post to be a
total mess of quotes):
Point 1: Not exactly. What I'm saying is that Amtrak should (for example) sit down with Iowa Pacific, AAPRCO, etc. and try to hammer out agreements to add private cars on super-peak days, with an understanding that the added car fares will almost always be higher than what Amtrak is charging. Amtrak would then agree to put out a pamphlet of services being offered by those operators on those days, link it on Amtrak.com (possibly in one of those "exclamation point" bits), guarantee the private operators slots on those trains with those cars as far in advance as possible (I suspect Amtrak would get some takers for, say, Thanksgiving weekend if they were willing to make a hard commitment on their end by Labor Day), and perhaps agree to permit either paid (e.g. like coach pax) or reimbursed (e.g. like the accounting is done for sleeper pax) access to the relevant dining cars if doing so is possible based on the equipment setup. They'd inevitably put a proviso saying "these accommodations are not provided by Amtrak" like they are with the Hoosier State right now, but that would (ideally) come alongside the ability to book a ticket through using both an Amtrak-ridden and a PV-ridden segment (as well as having a few more on/off choices than most PV options allow now...not
all stations, mind you, but a slightly broader selection). As to the
why, that comes down to the lack of "surge capacity" in the LD system and the associated fact that for want of a room on one train Amtrak could lose that passenger on 3-5 other segments (e.g. if the Cap is sold out eastbound on a traveler's required travel day, Amtrak could lose a whole round trip from the Midwest to Florida).
Point 2: My understanding, with the proviso that I may not have unbiased sources, is that Amtrak has been a somewhat begrudging host and resisted a higher frequency of trips rather than an active supporter. I
believe that IP would, for example,
love to sell tickets NOL-MEM/MEM-CHI but Amtrak won't let them O/D at any intermediate destinations, full stop.
Point 3: That's what I'm thinking as well. Heck, even if it only threw a few hundred tickets per year to Amtrak that's still a non-zero sum. I raise Saratoga as an easy example, but I know they're not the only such operator with a workable interface (there's another one in Utica that comes to mind, and though it's probably going to go away there's
no reason that Amtrak shouldn't have cross-listed Maine Eastern until then).
