The main problem with airlines is equipment and crew availability. When there's a delay on Amtrak, the biggest problem is supposed to be scheduling a proper slot for the train since they carefully set the slots. And maybe equipment availability. Doesn't the Auto Train only have two trainsets?
What happened when there was track flooding and they washed out? I think Amtrak has been through that before. However, I'm not sure it's the same as what airlines see, which is that a plane might need to start in Miami, head to Dallas, then Seattle, then Chicago. And with very little room to make up for a delayed plane.
Well there is also a slot problem too. Take my airport of CLT we're so congested that it doesn't take a lot to skew the system and cause a cascade of delays elsewhere. Just look at us on Summer Afternoons you'll find out that our storms cause all sorts of havoc across the east coast. So for that it is hard to add extra capacity anywhere.
The other issue you have is the need for high utilization causing delays too. There just aren't spare aircraft lying around especially at an out station. Now in a hub you might have a spare plane and a spare crew but it all depends if they really want to use that crew and plane. I know in our airport I've seen inbounds that have been over 5 hours late and for some reason we don't use the spare plane that is parked over by the NS Main Line and use a crew from hot. We can always deadhead the original crew to their overnight to resume their trip. They did that to me once, well the deadhead part. To me it looks like it would be simpler to use what you already have but crew scheduling and fleet management have some grand plan that I'm not privy too.
Remember when it comes to utilization it is all about doing the most with the least amount of resources. So on my longest day I had six flights. I want to say it was CAK-CLT-GSO-CLT-BHM-CLT-TYS which actually pushed me over my legal 14 hours thanks to delays. We incurred a weather delay in BHM that pushed us into TYS significantly late. This system we use is basically like a cog in a wheel everything has to be perfect in order for it to work. That is why we have designed a "Hot Reserve" where a handful of employees have to sit at the airport and see if a plane needs a crew. This oftentimes is last minute sick call outs, but delays are part of it as well. I get stuck on Hot at least twice a week and it royally stinks. This week we had a major delay coming out of GSP due to a 5K being ran on the CLT Runways which delayed all inbound traffic which caused a lot of misconnections (passenger delays in my book) at CLT.
Amtrak does have it to a degree and it is a lot harder to deadhead an Empire Builder consist to Seattle than it is for my airline to deadhead something to FSD.
@Seaboard92 this sounds like something right up your alley.
Indeed it is.
That's actually a major issue -- non-awareness.
If Amtrak were running on time, and people knew it existed, they'd pretty quickly be swamped by travellers and need to double the size of their fleet, IMO.
I've watched these situations over the years and the diversions from air travel seem to depend on how well-known the train service in that market is.
The original FRA Railpax plan started with no service up the West Coast and then just had a tri-weekly Coast Starlight between Portland and Seattle, even though 3x daily service had survived till Amtrak took over. At ODOT we suspected that they were just looking at population figures and not the actual propensity to travel or the conditions for travel.
I would tend to agree in most of the country rail service isn't really that well known. I know that in my small town and my larger city that most people don't realize we even have Amtrak because it has horrible calling times here. Now if it went thru in daylight they might have a better chance of knowing about it, but it also comes down to marketing. Where is Amtrak going to make more money marketing some rural South Carolina towns and cities or on the major corridors. Honestly the best thing for Amtrak's marketing in my area is a late running Silver Star in rush hour because people see it and realize then we have a train. This is also why keeping the trains exterior clean should be a priority because it is a rolling billboard.
I know when I'm dealing with passengers who miss the last flight into Atlanta and have plans they have to make the next morning in Atlanta when the chance they can get a standby seat the next day are slim to make their meeting I refer them to Amtrak. Most are shocked it is even an option. The Crescent has horrible calling times but it will get you to Atlanta in time for a morning meeting most days and it's space positive. But if I wasn't there to tell them it existed, tell them the rough cost of it, and directions to the train station I strongly doubt they ever would.
Now most FA's won't do this but my theory is my loyalty is to the people who pay my paychecks which are our passengers. They have important meetings, life events, and other reasons for travel that are important. My job is to get them from point A to point B and provide them a good memorable service. When one of the cogs in the wheel messes up due to weather, mechanical, staffing, or other delays we aren't providing a good memorable service. But if someone who represents the company tries to do everything in their power to remedy it and get them to Point B by any means necessary that to me is real customer service. And we badly need that not just at my airline but in the entire world.
I agree there are several routes I think of that have a high chance people would ride the train if Amtrak offered more than one service a day. I think the real low hanging fruit is Charlotte-Greenville-Atlanta. Everyone hates driving in all three of those cities so if you had a way that wasn't flying that didn't involve dealing with their traffic you would have a great service.
Yep, I'd love to know how much of the population actually knows of Amtrak services in their local area and long distance services. The percentage would probably be quite low. When I tell neighbors and friends about my Amtrak travels they are almost always surprised that it's' even possible. And then since they don't know about trains that much, they're sometimes surprised about how quick it takes.
In South Carolina it is very very low. But we do put out some great ridership especially on the Silver Meteor/Palmetto across the state because having the second trains makes it a more usable service.
Specially if you take into account where Skywest, Republic, Envoy and other regionals fly. Many smaller communities even some that Amtrak serve. About half the flights in/out of Denver (DIA) look like Skywest. I would think that Amtrak is a very viable alternative.
Yes and it is the same in my airport with my regional and the other AA regionals. We do a vast amount of flying because we are flying to the smaller places. Airline travel somewhat follows the same theory that if Amtrak offers twice daily or greater service that ridership increases. If you give people an option their likelihood that they will use your service goes up. The more service the better ridership counts. That is why you see a lot of regional flying. The other reason is because you can pay regional staff less, and the planes cost less to operate per hour. All of that adds up to it. I know we fly into these Amtrak serviced communities on my regional. CAE/CLB, ATL, GSP/GRV/SPB, SAV, JAX, JAN, CHS, RDU/RGH/DNC/CYN, RIC/RVR, ORF/NFK, PHF/NPN, DCA/WAS/ALX, MSY/NOL, BHM, CHO/CVS, CRW/CHW, CVG/CIN, IND, CLE, ROC, ALB, YYZ/TWO, YUL/MTL. And that's an incomplete list those are just some of the ones I can think of.
