How much did each rail mile cost you in 2012?

[jebr]

I was calculating out how much each mile on the rails cost me this year, and it looks like my average is only $0.10 per rail mile (that is, one mile riding a train.)

Broken down, it was

$0.09 per mile on Amtrak ($0.17 per mile removing my CZ trip)

$0.11 per mile on Metro Transit's Northstar.

$0.13 per mile on Metra.

I'm excluding in-city rail (light rail, Metro in DC, L in Chicago, etc.) for simplicity's sake.

How about for each of you?

EDIT: My cheapest trip per mile was Fridley-Big Lake and back on a Saturday, at $0.07 per mile. This was thanks due to weekend fare being only $2.50 for 31 miles (based on tracing the route online) and my Go-To Card having a pass which covered the first $2.25 of the fare for $1.85, and the other $0.25 coming out of my balance (which gets a 10% bonus when I load it.) Overall, the trip was only $2.08...for 31 miles, that's cheaper than gas!

Actually, I just realized that my average is cheaper than gas alone in the car I had for much of the year. Crazy, huh?

 

[Ryan]

Great question! How do you handle trips booked on points? I'm thinking "free" (which will help my average), but a case can be made for also including the acquisition cost of the points.

Edit: Now that I'm at work and have my spreadsheet in front of me, looks like about $0.06/mile on Amtrak. A roundtrip to ATL on points really helped that average out, though!

 

[JayPea]

If I stick to just trips I paid for with good old cash, then the total comes out to 12.7 cents/mile, based on a Spokane - Glacier Park round trip. However, if I throw in my points trip, Ft. Lauderdale - Spokane, all paid for with points, then that drops to 1.3 cents/mile. And it's impossible to calculate how much the points cost. I accumulated the points I used for the trip through multiple sources. Plus I only paid for part of the trip with points; my uncle paid for the other part with his points. So for simplicity sake I stick with 1.3 cents/mile.

 

[tomfuller]

With my Senior Discount and my wifes AAA Discount the average for our trip between SPK and CLE and return was 10 cents per mile for each of us.

We took a trip from Green Belt station into DC but I don't know the exact distance or fare.

 

[jebr]

Mine were all cash fares with a Student Advantage discount for Amtrak.

For simplicity's sake, let's go with each point is worth a penny. Probably a bit low on their worth, but I'm fine with that for now.

 

[Carolyn Jane]

Are you including the cost of accommodations other than coach? Or BC? Only one trip, if only in coach it would be 15.2 cents per mile. With BC on one segment it rose to 19.7 cents. CJ

 

[Tracktwentynine]

My average for 2012 is $0.07 per mile.

I'm going to see if I can calculate it for past years, too.

 

[Exiled in Express]

16.3 cents per Rail Point, higher than I expected. I still need to tally some recent travel to get my 2012 miles, total spend of $482 including accomodations for travel and $275 to buy points.

 

[jis]

Oh all you lucky guys. Here's the sort of costs that we bear in NJ:

NJT from Short Hills to New York is about $0.40/mile $8 for just under 20 miles, which is usually covered in 40 to 55 mins.

My most used run on the NEC on NJT, Metropark - New York which is about 24 miles is $10 which works out to about $0.42/mile. It's $20 on Amtrak or $0.84/mile, and we are just talking Regional here.

New York to Trenton by NJT is $15.50 for 58 miles which is $0.27/mile. Amtrak is $29 or $0.50/mile.

Interestingly, both Amtrak and NJT are in the black above the rail on the NEC. So that gives you some idea of what it actually costs above the rail to provide service, given that you have the demand. M&E with essentially the same fare level for the same distance as NEC, does not break even, close but no cigar. Not enough traffic.

 

[jebr]

I've only traveled in coach, so that's what I used.

 

[Trogdor]

Counting only Amtrak miles, I think my net total for 2012 came in around $0.00/mile, give or take a pencil shaving or so.

If we only count sleeper trips, the average was easily double that.

 

[PRR 60]

Counting only Amtrak miles, I think my net total for 2012 came in around $0.00/mile, give or take a pencil shaving or so.

If we only count sleeper trips, the average was easily double that.

Even at 10 times that cost, it is still worth it! :lol:

 

[PRR 60]

My paid trips, mostly on the Keystones west of PHL, were 25 cents a mile.

 

[jis]

My paid trips, mostly on the Keystones west of PHL, were 25 cents a mile.

If you were paying NJT l;evel fares I bet Keystones would not need any subsidy at all if the ridership would hold up.

NJT is probably one of the only passenger railroads, other than Amtrak, which has one of its lines cross subsidize to some extent its other lines.

 

[ne52]

Interesting question... just made me realize how much I've spent this year.

NJ Transit:

$0.50 per mile, $4 to go 8 miles

Amtrak, not counting reward redemption:

$0.28 per mile. All NE corridor. 89% coach and mostly discounted, 8% discounted Acela, 3% full fare regional Business Class.

 

[Swadian Hardcore]

It was about $0.12 for me.

 

[Ispolkom]

About 3 cents per mile for me, a mix of mostly AGR travel and some paid. Ninety-five percent of the travel was in sleepers, which ups the cost a bit.

 

[the_traveler]

For me, $000.00 cents a mile! :giggle: Did you think I ACTUALLY PAY?

 

[jacorbett70]

I kept an excel of AGR points/miles/$.

Divide total paid by miles including AGR redemptions was about 23c/mile.

A lot of NEC travel ups it.

 

[NorthCoastHiawatha]

0.17 overall

(0.08 if you don't count the single trip I took in sleeper)

 

[SubwayNut]

Living in New York City with higher NEC fares and may shorter distance trips on numerous corridors (part points runs, part more stations) I guess I understand why the total is so high, I spent 13¢ per mile traveled this year not including the accommodation charges of my one Sleeping car trip, one Business Class trip (I guess I should add another $10 for checking my bike on the Lake Shore Limited), it goes up to 15¢ per mile if I include those charges.

The most expensive trip per mile of the year is the my trip today! NWK-BOS on Acela Express (first class already called, upgrade is confirmed with my S coupon, the reservation agent had to ask her supervisor how to not charge me again) 44¢ per mile! That's on a low-bucket $107 fare.

Not including today's Acela trip my most expensive is a part of a day of points runs on Springfield Shuttle (during triple points week) Meriden to Harford at 39¢ per mile.

Actually partical travel is the Pacific Surfliner at 38¢ per mile from LA to Irvine and back (I wanted to take MetroLink but the times didn't work out).

Cheepest is a tie at 8¢ per mile on California Zephyr between Salt Lake City and Sacromento, and the Lincoln Service from Chicago to Alton.

My trip on the Canadian was 25¢ per mile (including the Upper Berth Charge) and TOR-NFL on the Maple Leaf.

For commuter rail travel (I did not do commuter rail milage but calculated a few for comparisons):

Metrolink (normally with extremely high fares) but their $10 weekend passes can give you tons of miles, I traveled for 262 miles and paid just 4¢ per mile traveled

On Metro-North I paid 33¢ per mile, Wassaic to Fordham on the Harlem Line

The New Haven Line is nearly half the price at 18¢ per mile New Haven to Fordham

New Jersey Transit Newark to Metropark is 43¢ per mile

The Long Island Railroad Jamaica to Copaigue is 31¢ per mile (off peak)

My best Metro-North and LIRR travel of this year though will always be after Superstorm Sandy after Mayor Cuomo made all travel was free! (including in Connecticut) I would have spent $44 on fares on the Friday alone for my photo essaying of Metro-North stations.

 

[Linda T]

All my trips this year were AGR awards. I did about 5,854 miles and only had to pay trips west from HUN to CIN ($27 each way) so a whopping $54 to go a total of 5,854 miles. That comes to something like .009 cents per mile, if I calculated that correct. BTW, that's just fare, that doesn't include tips.

 

[caravanman]

I think the best way to keep costs down is to use the rail pass... this averages out at around $50 a ride... just over 2 cents a mile from Chicago to Emeryville, for example.

Ed