Chicago to Milwaukee Hiawatha route ticket prices

Trains Magazine Passenger
1

So I remember in another thread that someone told me that all Amtrak trains were under a yield management system and they were not sure about state supported trains. This was in response to my comments that a RT ticket price on the Milwaukee-Chicago service has been relatively stable over a decade or more…while I have watched ticket prices on other trains increase.

Well it mentions in the lastest issue of Trains that the Chicago to Milwaukee route is on a fixed ticket price system and does not participate in the yield management system Amtrak has in place elsewhere, it also mentions one or two other state supported trains in the same bucket.

Why on Earth would you do this if your trying to minimize the loss? The Hiawatha service is within 2-3% of meeting it’s costs according to the Heritage Group. Does the state subsidy mandate a fixed or agreed upon price for a RT ticket. If so, I have to wonder why…so much so that I am tempted to call the Wisconsin Governors office and ask.

They recently dropped the push cart food or snack service on the route which I think was a good move for such a short run. I believe that move saved close to $150k a year in subsidy. Curious as to why they do not use yield management on this train.

2

Hiawatha service is a joint IL-WI effort. Since state sponsored trains within Illinois, such as the Illini service, appear to use flexible fare format (yield management), it must be the WI DOT that is insisting on fixed prices.

3

Not only are they not using yield management pricing, their price ($24.00 for CHI/MKE) is the same regardless of the time of day. I would think some proportion of the customer base is daily or near daily commuters and would be insensitive to premium prices for rush hours departures.

4

My understanding is the “commuters” get a price break with some sort of multiple ticket. But not sure about that.

5

On the Chicago/Milwaukee run a monthly ticket is available for $390. Depending upon how the calendar falls, that works out to something like $9.50 each way each day for a weekday commuter. In my mind, that much discount is not justifiable in terms of the reduced amount of effort expended on ticket issuance and collection. However, that is a very subjective opinion.

6

I don’t know how it’s set up with other agencies, but my Metra monthly ticket fare is roughly equivalent to 28.5 one-way fares, which is a substantial discount.