Take the following for what it is worth. Maybe in a week or two there will be a contract between Alstom and Amtrak ?
http://www.eveningtribune.com/news/20160725/alstom-amtrak-come-to-terms-on-25-billion-deal
And of course Schuner will not be upstaged and releases a very “short” title release !
“On Monday morning…” Wow! Chuck the shmuck speaks and it’s not on a Sunday.
[2c]Amtrak needs New Superliner Car order first, not Acela trainset again. Another NEC toy. Everything in NEC, help out LD trains with new cars and new engines for LD trains.
Acelas are getting up there in age. It is time to start thinking about a replacement. And the NEC is not a toy. It’s real passenger railroading serving many people. There are many that believe long distance trains are the expensive toys.
Amtrak should be pushing hard for discontinuance of the Sunset Limited and Cardinal at a minimum (bottom two performing trains) and redirect the money and equipment savings from running those two trains into something else.
Everything is for NEC Toys, and nothing outside the NEC, maybe little 130 car Viewliners car order. We need more than 130 little car order.[2c]
In April, 2016 the long distance services had 351,339 passengers:13.8% ; State-supported corridors 1,161,154: 45.7%; the NEC (Acela and regional) 1,027,230: 40.5%. The total was 2,539,723. But in its brilliance, a minor and shrinking section of Amtrak, gets a multi-car order for new equipment, much of which (baggage cars) does not even carry passengers. Last I looked, Amtrak’s mission is to carry passengers, and 86% of it is getting short shrift.
The Acela trains have been running high mileage for 16 years, they carry a large share of Amtrak’s pasengers and generate an above-the-rails surplus that has been used to subsidize LD serivice.
The reality is if we are going to run the current Amtrak schedule additional viewliners, super liners and Acela train sets need to be ordered.
If not the Acela trains need to be the first priority. LD trains need to be reduced and equipment reallocated.
Unfortunately, like the testimony in front of Rep Mica, this is once again a matter of Amtrak management leadership. Amtrak management has not made the case for refreshing the LD fleet. Instead they have made the case that the NEC needs massive investment to remain in steady state. So Congress here is acting on the priority set by Amtrak management. Keep the NEC afloat at all costs including deemphasizing or shedding the LD trains.
So in that environment that Amtrak created they should reduce the LD train running cost (and there is significant costs that can be cut without too much damage to the National Network) and lower the future Amtrak subsidy for LD trains.
If it was me I would cut the Sunset Limited and Cardinal. Use the equipment and try to get state subsidy funds from the states to run new trains using that equipment that have a better return on passenger haulage than the Sunset Limited or Cardinal did…which should not be too difficult. Pehaps even use the equipment to ramp up Amtraks for-profit Charter business (like the seasonal Denver Ski Train) which it has talked about but never implemented.
I think I would also raise prices on Dining Car fare as well as Sleeping Car accomodations, place all ticket sales under yield management, attempt once again to get cost sharing on the NEC to more equitable levels.
Agreed. Perhaps it’s not too late to change some of the baggage and dining and sleeper VIEWLINER II cars still being made into revenue-producing
In 2015 Northeast Corridor (NEC) trains carried 37.9 per cent of Amtrak’s total passengers and accounted for 54.8 per cent of its ticket revenues.
The Acela carried 29.7 per cent of the NEC passengers and brought in 48.8 per cent of the NEC ticket revenues.
The Acela’s carried 11.2 per cent of Amtrak’s passengers and were responsible for 26.8 per cent of its ticket revenues.
The NEC’s contribution before capital charges was $457.6 million. The Acela’s contributed 62.9 per cent - $287.8 million - of this number. On the same basis the State Supported trains lost $113.7 million before the adjustment for state capital payments. The long distance trains lost $514 million.
A significant percentage of Amtrak’s capital charges probably were/are attributable to the infrastructure upgrades that were made in the NEC for or mostly for the Acela’s.
Amtrak claims that it cannot accurately allocate the capital charges, so it is impossible for an outsider to know how much the Acela, NEC trains, State Supported trains, and Long Distance trains earn or lose on a fully allocated basis.
If Amtrak were managed like a competitive business, it would focus its resources on the NEC, which is what management has been proposing, I think. It is reasonably close to becoming at least a breakeven operation. Diluting its focus is a recipe for business failure, which has been its problem or one of them since the
[quote user=“JPS1”]
In 2015 Northeast Corridor (NEC) trains carried 37.9 per cent of Amtrak’s total passengers and accounted for 54.8 per cent of its ticket revenues.
The Acela carried 29.7 per cent of the NEC passengers and brought in 48.8 per cent of the NEC ticket revenues.
The Acela’s carried 11.2 per cent of Amtrak’s passengers and were responsible for 26.8 per cent of its ticket revenues.
The NEC’s contribution before capital charges was $457.6 million. The Acela’s contributed 62.9 per cent - $287.8 million - of this number. On the same basis the State Supported trains lost $113.7 million before the adjustment for state capital payments. The long distance trains lost $514 million.
A significant percentage of Amtrak’s capital charges probably were/are attributable to the infrastructure upgrades that were made in the NEC for or mostly for the Acela’s.
Amtrak claims that it cannot accurately allocate the capital charges, so it is impossible for an outsider to know how much the Acela, NEC trains, State Supported trains, and Long Distance trains earn or lose on a fully allocated basis.
If Amtrak were managed like a competitive business, it would focus its resources on the NEC, which is what management has been proposing, I think. It is reasonably close to becoming at least a breakeven operation. Diluting its focus is a recipe for business failure, which has bee
Yep. And for the 2nd corridor as well.
CMStPnP
As for the NEC infrastructure, Amtrak should get with the Feds and use Eminent domain to obtain the entire NEC under it’s ownership Boston to Washington.
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And what do you propose as a source of money to make this acquisition?
Since the property is already publicly owned and this is a change in ownership for the public good with only a modification to a change of use by the past owner. I would imagine that a Court would rule the compensation could be held to a fairly low level…IF any compensation was required at all.
As the valuation of all the Big 6’s ROWs is considerably less than some believe, stretches of the NEC currently held by governmental units like MNRR and others would probably be a simple transfer.
The NEC needs 100 billions plus dollars in work to done, with Tunnels, Bridges, and Track needed to replace. That real Money Pit called the NEC, not LD trains or short line trains. plus this new Trainsets being order for the NEC again.[2c]
It is absolutely essential work, while LD services are largely minor, irrelevant and redundant.
Maybe cost savings can be achieved by outsourcing to contractors with more experience in HSR ROWs?
Maybe Amtrak should be worried about LD trains and Short line trains and Sale the NEC for 100 Billion dollars or 200 Billion Dollars??