Does anyone know an accurate source for age demographics of Amtrak ridership by route?
Here is a link to some demographics for the NEC. I am not sure whether it is for the Acela or the total NEC. In 2015 ridership on the NEC was 11.7 million, so it appears that the data in the referenced source is for the whole NEC.
http://amtrakmedianetwork.com/about-the-network/demographics
Five or six years ago, while on the Sunset Limited to LAX, I had a long chat with the sleeping car attendant.
He said that he had been a sleeping car attendant for more than 40 years, and he was approaching retirement. He began his career in Chicago and worked practically every train out of Chicago. He said that he frequently worked the Broadway Limited.
He recalled seeing many business travelers in the sleepers during the early days of his career, especially between New York and Chicago. Now, however, he said most of the people in the sleepers were pensioners. His term! He repeatedly referred to the pensioners.
This is just one person’s observations. They may not reflect an accurate picture of Amtrak’s sleeping car passengers.
I have not taken a sleeper for years. I fly for long distances and only use Amtrak or other trains for short distance travel when I am in California or New York. But my recollection of the other sleeping car passengers is that most of them were retired or nearly there.
The Sunset crews are based in LAX. He said that he transferred to LAX many years ago to escape the cold weather in Chicago.
Well the Amtrak LD sample you used is mostly trains with two nights aboard. I would be curious about the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited. Two fairly fast trains with decent departure times from Chicago. I would be even more interested in the demographics if you got an overnight train to depart a major city at 7-8 p.m. and arrive at it’s destination at 7-8 a.m. the next morning. Not too many Amtrak trains meet that criteria because Amtrak sets it’s schedules more for the liesure traveler than the business traveler when it comes to overnight trains.
As a business consultant, I cannot ride Amtrak even if I wanted to becau
The Boston-Newport News train meets that requirement, and the lack of sleeper for Boston/Providence - Baltimore/Washington/Richmond passengers is a shame. Mr. Ellis, where are you?
It was not a sample. It was one attendant’s observations.
The attendant mostly (frequently) worked Chicago to New York trains when he was based in Chicago, so he said, as best I can remember, which are one night trains.
The Sunset Limited is two nights for passengers that ride it all the way. However, according to Amtrak, less than 10 per cent of the Sunset’s passengers ride it end point to end point. I rode it from El Paso to LAX.
The attendant’s observations, which were based on more than 40 years of service, were his perception of the changing demographics of the Amtrak passengers that he encountered in the sleepers over his service period.
One man’s observations passed on to me. Nothing more; nothing less.
That corresponds increasingly with what I’ve observed (n=1) over 40 years on and off on the one night trains to NYC or DC from CHI.