While true, I think Amtrak, for whatever reason, both aims and claims to be a more useful and relevant service than VIA rail claims to be (and so some extent, definitely is). Therefore, Amtrak has to be at least somewhat financially accessible to the general public.
Air travel isn’t subsidized?
I would love to see the demographic information that Amtrak has compiled on its passengers (and not just for its sleeping car passengers either.) I wonder if this information includes how far in advance the typical Amtrak passenger makes and pays for his or her reservations. From reading various posts, I’ve come to the conclusion that many AU members make their reservations 6-12 months in advance to be sure of getting the accommodations they want for the dates they plan to travel. The average person wouldn’t know to do this and even if they did, how many would want to pay for their tickets that far in advance and risk substantial penalties if their travel plans change? IMHO, until this situation changes, for the average person, Amtrak will never be a viable alternative to flying or driving.
Agreed.
Of course it is. So are highways. I don’t know enough about how they are financed to say anything worth saying about them, but Amtrak receives government funds for both operations and capital expenditures, and it’s touted as improving mobility, so to me that indicates that having fares that can attract a broad range of travelers would be consistent with that.
How are some getting tickets 12 months in advance? I could only get 11 months to the day.
I got to do that once, returning from a business trip to Davenport IA flying into O'Hare then heading downtown to take the Broadway Limited in a Heritage 10/6 roomette to Paoli PA where my wife picked me up. I remember the forms at work for travel expenses still had a box to check for Air or Pullman so checking Pullman must have surprised the bean counters
. This was in 1985By the way, at the time (about 15 years ago), the fare in a roomette was about the same as a fully refundable airline coach ticket on most of the routes I used. Most business travel, of course, is usually booked right before the trip, and most companies want the ability to be able to cancel the trip without penalty, so buying those cheap fare tickets everyone talks about (and I can never seem to find, anyway
) is not a viable option.Same here on my trip from LA on the thru-sleeper on the Sunset Ltd. & Southern Crescent back in the '70's. Amtrak was running the thru-sleeper on the Sunset Ltd., but Southern Railway was still hanging on to the Crescent.By the way, at the time (about 15 years ago), the fare in a roomette was about the same as a fully refundable airline coach ticket on most of the routes I used. Most business travel, of course, is usually booked right before the trip, and most companies want the ability to be able to cancel the trip without penalty, so buying those cheap fare tickets everyone talks about (and I can never seem to find, anyway
You are correct. The earliest you can book Amtrak tickets is 11 months in advance. How far in advance does the average person contact Amtrak to make their reservations? Probably not far enough in advance to be sure of obtaining the accommodations they want.
Which extra sleepers that Amtrak supposedly has on hand would they use?
Understood. What I'm suggesting is how the system should be set up if Amtrak expects to become a viable alternative to driving or flying for the average person.
European countries usually have a robust government funded healthcare which overall reduces retirement costs for companies. Healthcare alone almost doubles compensation for companies/governments.
Random consist modification is more a characteristic of boutique operations. Large operations tend to use standard pre-planned consists these days, modulo last minute possible substitutions due to mechanical and such of course. I don't think that cause them to be noncompetitive. Amtrak's problems lie elsewhere, including inability to field even a consist that they originally thought they would have and based on which they sold tickets. That together with general shortage of rolling stock causing a large gap between supply and demand won't get fixed by proverbial rearrangement of deck chairs ... er ... cars among trains. What will fix it is getting more rolling stock commensurate with the demand that is to be met at a given fare level.
Many European railroads run more or less the same consist all year round on night trains for example, but will still tack on extra cars on days of high demand, or even marshall a relief train, often out of legacy cars, that runs slightly ahead of or behind the main train to take off some of the pressure. There are even leasing companies who specialize in buying up older cars, facelifting them, and making them available for hire.
well, we can’t have nice things until we pay for them.
Wait what? Flixtrain doesn't operate X2000, that's SJ, and a 1st class ticket is at least 365 SEK (very few seats at this price, it goes as much as 1835 SEK)
