Well that’s the crazy thing, isn’t it? Congress hasn’t the guts to kill it, if that’s what they really want, nor do they have the guts to fund it into the powerhouse it could be, especially in this day and age when air travel is becoming less and less popular and a viable alternative could be very attractive to travelers.
What are the stats for you saying air travel is less and less popular? There’s been more and more griping from air customers since the incresed security and most charging for all luggage (and some even for carry-ons). But that doesn’t mean air travelers would ride Amtrak LD trains even if more were available.
Further Amtrak really blows it with the intermodal Airport stations which are not even at the airport terminal in almost every case. If Amtrak was ever serious about being an alternative to the plane on it’s corridors it would pay to move the station onto airport property and serve the terminal just like the airlines do.
I would be real curious if Amtrak developed an Airport terminal to Airport Terminal corridor, with 90-95% reliability if Airlines would respect it as an alternative in bad weather or potentially pay to have it as a subcontractor similar to a regional jet.
It definitely would cost some serious money but I don’t see why Amtrak can’t serve Chicago Union Station and O’Hare (at the main terminal). For that matter the Milwaukee Airport station could have been built right at the terminal of Milwaukee Mitchell field just by spending more money. They manage to build spurs that leave and rejoin the mainline for frieght customers like power plants but apparently too much of an expense for passengers.
You’ve entered the fact-free zone.
All-time high in 2018, surpassing previous high in 2017, up 4.8%.
I’m more than willing to admit I’m wrong, honestly I based my opinion on airline gloom-and-doom headlines, but I just checked that link Charlie supplied and I see plenty of stats, but no “butts-in-seats” stats. Are they up, or down? And where do we find the numbers?
With respect, I think alphas was talking about ‘popular’ in the sense of satisfaction, not in the sense of patronage. I doubt you’ll find many people who think air travel is more enjoyable now; it’s going to be interesting to see what the effect of Delta’s service changes starting November 5th will be … not in terms of number of ‘butts in seats’ but in terms of quality and service reviews or lower numbers of complaints.
From Mike:
Elijah’s station
Maybe he was, but satisfaction surveys are less reliable and/or valid than number of passengers using, which is the same as ‘butts in seats’ AFAIK.
Indeed - I flew one airline on a trip to AZ last year that seemed to go out of it’s way to be inconvenient, even to the point of not allowing me to upgrade my “economy” seat. It wasn’t even a case of no upgrades available - it simply wasn’t an option. I won’t fly them again.
According to JD Power, customer satisfaction with airline travel is at an all-time high, topping last year’s record by eleven points on its 1000 point scale.
https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2019-north-america-airline-satisfaction-study
Added: Transcipt of Elijah’s statements with Moorman
The customer satisfaction surveys are interesting, and one would assume they would translate into greater business for the airlines, but I’d still like to see a straightforward set of numbers as in, are ticket sales up, down, or static.
The question really is, are the airlines selling tickets at the rate they want, or are the gloomy ticket sales news stories I’ve seen merely a case of business not as good as the airlines wish it was? In other words they had a target figure and didn’t make it?
It’s kind of like when I see a news story of “Business X” claiming they lost “ten gazillion” dollars last year. Turns out they didn’t lose anything, they just didn’t make as money as they thought they would. If they “lost” as much money as they said they did they’d be out of business!
I don’t understand why you still wonder about ticket sales. They are at record highs two years running.
Charlie, if you say ticket sales are at record highs two years running that’s good enough for me! I’m sure you’ve got your sources, so I won’t say any more on the subject.
My questioning came about because those two links didn’t mention ticket sales at all, they mentioned everything but.
I think it boils down to this:
If I live in NYC and want to travel to Boston, I will take a train.
If I live in NYC and want to travel to Los Angeles, I will take a plane.
A dining car, or a toilet in my bedroom, or a restaurant in a station, or a great European rail system, is not going to make much difference.
That was my error. The link was a little off.
Try this:
https://www.bts.gov/newsroom/estimated-july-2019-us-airline-traffic-data
Got it. Much better, thank you!