A
recent thread introduced the idea that traveling
further on Amtrak could result in a cheaper roomette price than traveling a shorter distance. This piqued my interest, so I analyzed fares on the Crescent from four origin stations.
To do these analyses, I used
AmSnag. It's a terrific tool for analyzing Amtrak fares if you're looking to make pretty charts or just save a few bucks on your next vacation. All of the ticket prices looked at are the low-bucket price
only.
Coach fare (dark red line) is pretty straightforward. It's the low-bucket price from the origin to each station down the line.
Roomette fare (green line) is the roomette upcharge added to the coach fare. So essentially, it's the price if one person wanted to be in a roomette singly.
Bedroom fare (blue line) is the bedroom upcharge added to the coach fare. Essentially, it's the price if one person wanted to be in a bedroom alone.
Note: Only major stations are shown on the chart, but the analysis considered the fare from the origin to each other station on the Crescent.
First, let's look at low-bucket fares on the Crescent starting from
New York (NYP):
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A few notes:
Generally, fares from New York act as we expect. Note that the lines start at ALX (Alexandria, Va.). This is because passengers cannot alight between New York and Washington, so fare data is not available. Beyond Alexandria, coach fares increase in a shallow step function as far as Anniston, Alabama, after which the fare ceases to increase.
However, what's most interesting is the roomette fare. Note that after ATL (Atlanta, Ga.) the roomette fee
drops. That means that someone traveling from New York to Atlanta could buy a roomette ticket from New York to Anniston (and just get off in Atlanta) and save on the order of $50.
Because the roomette fare drops south of
Atlanta (ATL), let's look there next:
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The above chart should be read in two ways. Southbound trips start at Atlanta (where the lines have a gap) and go to the right. Northbound trips start at Atlanta and go to the left.
Fares for the portion of the Crescent south of Atlanta are much cheaper (in all three fare categories) than they are north of Atlanta. This is due primarily to the demand of the route, which is much stronger north of the Big Peach.
The most interesting piece of data, though, is for roomette and sleeper trips taken from Atlanta to any point south of Washington (including DC). For all of those destinations, the low-bucket
bedroom is
cheaper than the low-bucket roomette.
So what does
Charlotte (CLT) look like?
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Like Atlanta, the chart should be read starting from the center and moving outward.
Note that roomettes are more expensive in the low-bucket than bedrooms in the low-bucket for trips starting from Charlotte and ending between Atlanta and Washington (inclusive). There is a significant drop in the fare when one compares Charlotte -> Atlanta and Charlotte -> Anniston. Buying a trip from Charlotte to Anniston in a roomette and then just getting off in Atlanta would save a rider $106 over a ticket from Charlotte to Atlanta.
A similar phenomenon happens for destinations north of Washington, although with not as severe a drop.
One final chart,
New Orleans (NOL):
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larger image)
This chart should be read right to left. Trips start on the right at New Orleans, with longer trips moving further left across the graph.
Note that the lines representing coach, roomette, and bedroom are all roughly parallel from New Orleans to Atlanta. After Atlanta, all three see a steep increase, after which, all of the lines begin to diverge. This is because roomettes increase at a greater rate than coach, and bedrooms increase at a greater rate than roomettes, especially north of Washington.
Anyway, I hope all this is clear. I'll be happy to clarify anything that's not.
