St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago (TCMC) second daily service

[thefirewarde]

Per WISDOT, our first ridership data for the Borealis.

1333 WB, total May: 3,622; average daily: 329
1340 EB, total May: 3,028; average daily: 275

Notably the westbound is on average selling more total tickets than it has seats, which backs up anecdotal evidence of strong intermediate boarding numbers. The eastbound is just twelve seats below that arbitrary threshold.

 

[Harmon Shay]

Actually, one Amfleet 1 84-seater (this was prior to ADA) from the Seattle-Portland local pool was assigned for a while as a third coach on each of the Pioneer trainsets, each trading places with a Pioneer 60-seater. An Amtrak person told me that was done because the Pioneer was sometimes being oversold in Oregon and that way, they had 24 extra seats to help squeeze the extra people in. One problem, though, was that on busy days, the toilets in the 84-seater sometimes filled up before the Pioneer's trip was over.

 

[OmahaRoad]

Per WISDOT, our first ridership data for the Borealis.

1333 WB, total May: 3,622; average daily: 329
1340 EB, total May: 3,028; average daily: 275

Notably the westbound is on average selling more total tickets than it has seats, which backs up anecdotal evidence of strong intermediate boarding numbers. The eastbound is just twelve seats below that arbitrary threshold.

Great news! I can't wait to see in another month or so (depending on data release dates) what the overall ridership was for the Borealis in Q2 2024 (the portion of Q2 it was running for, of course).

 

[Amtrak25]

Counter-intuitive that eastbound carries less than westbound since the eastbound is likely carrying some Train 8 refugees when it is hours late.

 

[WWW]

Per WISDOT, our first ridership data for the Borealis.

1333 WB, total May: 3,622; average daily: 329
1340 EB, total May: 3,028; average daily: 275

Notably the westbound is on average selling more total tickets than it has seats, which backs up anecdotal evidence of strong intermediate boarding numbers. The eastbound is just twelve seats below that arbitrary threshold.

It would be fair to note how the ridership of EB trains 7 & 8 is affected by the new B trains 1333 & 1340
I.E. #8 being very late - 1340 picking up some of the distressed passengers -
#7 being still at an awkward time arriving MSP - when the #1333 is in a better suited time frame -
perhaps the fare difference between coach business roomette sleeper having a part.

On another note the time service fare difference of Bus service between MSP & CHI.

That third train needs to address going through Wisconsin Eau Claire Madison and other non B & EB cities
which may dilute the revenue yield on these existing two train services !

 

[prech786]

Speaking of East-West Rider ship on the Borealis. On our trip from MSP-WDL-MPS, late May, the westbound train from Chicago dropped off about 50+ pax’s at the Dells. These were mostly all college people coming to work the scores of seasonal attractions at the “Water Park Capital of America”. The Dell’s in some ways is Chicago’s weekend ‘Orlando’, LOL. Given the convenience of the Borealis schedule I can see a lot of CHI-WDL-CHI traffic this summer. Workers and visitors traveling just to and from Chicago. The Dells is a huge attraction for Chicagoans!

 

[moselman66]

May operating stats are out.

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/...mtrak-Monthly-Performance-Report-May-2024.pdf

6.6 thousand passengers
0.3 million gross ticket revenue
0.6 million operating revnue
0.5 million operating expense
0.1 million adjusted operating earnings ($100k)

The "earnings" numbers on these monthly reports are to be taken with a big grain of salt, and this is just the first 11 days. But it's still good to see.

1.3 million revenue passenger miles
2.6 million available seat miles

50.0% load factor which compares positively with most state-supported routes

The MIlwaukee-Chicago segment is about 20% of the entire MSP-CHI run and we know that tends to be fuller than upline. If we make an assumption on how full the MKE-CHI segment was on Borealis, we can use math to back into the average load factor upline of MIlwaukee.

If CHI-MKE was 100% full, then upline would be 36.8% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 90% full, then upline would be 39.4% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 85% full, then upline would be 40.8% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 80% full, then upline would be 42.0% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 75% full, then upline would be 43.4% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 70% full, then upline would be 44.7% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 65% full, then upline would be 46.0% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor
If CHI-MKE was 60% full, then upline would be 47.4% full to achieve an overall 50% load factor

So it seems likely that upline of MKE that Borealis ran somewhere in the low 40% overall. This is just the first 11 days so it is obviously way too early to draw even preliminary conclusions. But it's still really interesting to me at this early stage, and good to see that solid loads were experienced.

 

[Amtrak25]

0.3 million gross ticket revenue
0.5 million operating expense

Sees sto mean farebox recovery is 60%.
The need to find another coach to add to the consists so they will have 5, like the Hiawathas do. Since this train replaced one of those frequencies, capacity went down by 20% (less 15 in Biz class).

 

[WWW]

0.3 million gross ticket revenue
0.5 million operating expense

Sees sto mean farebox recovery is 60%.
The need to find another coach to add to the consists so they will have 5, like the Hiawathas do. Since this train replaced one of those frequencies, capacity went down by 20% (less 15 in Biz class).

Great adding another coach to a consist if available and serviceable - - -
And then until some station platforms are suitably long enough to accommodate the extra consist length

 

[Willbridge]

Actually, one Amfleet 1 84-seater (this was prior to ADA) from the Seattle-Portland local pool was assigned for a while as a third coach on each of the Pioneer trainsets, each trading places with a Pioneer 60-seater. An Amtrak person told me that was done because the Pioneer was sometimes being oversold in Oregon and that way, they had 24 extra seats to help squeeze the extra people in. One problem, though, was that on busy days, the toilets in the 84-seater sometimes filled up before the Pioneer's trip was over.

At times they also ran a PDX<>SEA coach, but despite the extra seats there were trips with standees. On one trip I rode PDX>TAC with no seat.

 

[thefirewarde]

Amtrak has their May performance numbers out. I did some very back-of-the-napkin math, it looks like the Empire Builder is down roughly 150 daily riders against almost 600 daily Borealis passengers. The Hiawathas gained ridership this month compared to their average daily ridership through April. This seems like a pretty solid win for Amtrak.

Edit: it's mentioned in the article linked below that eighteen Horizon cars are being restored to active service, with bike accomodations. I have heard mention of a bike storage retrofit variously being designed for/by California and Maine. Do we have any insight if this could bring bike service to the Borealis?

https://bikeleague.org/amtrak-agrees-to-better-bicycle-access/

 

[NewRails]

This seems evident. One component of WisDOT planning was that leaving and/or arriving at major stations was key to ridership increase. See wisarp.wordpress.com

 

[Saddleshoes]

Amtrak has their May performance numbers out. I did some very back-of-the-napkin math, it looks like the Empire Builder is down roughly 150 daily riders against almost 600 daily Borealis passengers. The Hiawathas gained ridership this month compared to their average daily ridership through April. This seems like a pretty solid win for Amtrak.

Edit: it's mentioned in the article linked below that eighteen Horizon cars are being restored to active service, with bike accomodations. I have heard mention of a bike storage retrofit variously being designed for/by California and Maine. Do we have any insight if this could bring bike service to the Borealis?

https://bikeleague.org/amtrak-agrees-to-better-bicycle-access/

I just ran across this item tonight.
Tomorrow I start a bike/train tour. I am excited! At this time tomorrow my bike and I will be on the Empire Builder!
Next time I do this I hope to take the Borealis with my bike!!!!

 

[tgstubbs1]

I just ran across this item tonight.
Tomorrow I start a bike/train tour. I am excited! At this time tomorrow my bike and I will be on the Empire Builder!
Next time I do this I hope to take the Borealis with my bike!!!!

Are you going to check it? I always wonder how well riders do on the bike/train trips, especially LD.

 

[pennyk]

To continue the discussion of St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago (TCMC) second daily service, please post your comments in the "current" St. Paul, Milwaukee, Chicago Corridor service thread:

https://www.amtraktrains.com/threads/st-paul-milwaukee-chicago-corridor-service-h2-2024.87607/

Thank you for your cooperation and participation.