Amtrak’s claim that sleeper class ridership on the Silver Star increased 21 per cent covered the first seven months of the experiment. The information can be found on Pg. 8 of the 2015 Annual Report.
Reference to the 2015 Annual Report, as well as the fact that the period covered was the first seven months of the experiment, are stated clearly.
Presumably your confusing me with a previous participant. Speculation without veiifiable evidence is unwarranted.
It would be better if the report stated which month the experiment began.
You can see the trend is tapering off more recently. It will be interesting to see what Sept. numbers look like.
Sleeper Class only
FY 2016 FY 2015 % Change
Aug. Silver Star 3,175 3,359 -5.5%
Jul. Silver Star 3,573 3,516 +1.6
Jun Silver Star &n
On I-95 count the NY, Ontario and Quebec license plates headed South in Dec. Jan. and Feb. then coming North in late March & April.
How do you know demand numbers?
Winter is still more popular than summer. Just check hotel rates.
Might also add that a good portion of the population in Southern Florida has their second home there and the traffic is not only within the United States it is International. When my Parents had a home North of Naples (Bonita Springs) their next door neighbor was from the UK, the neighbor across the street from Brazil. Gemans have second homes in the subdivision as well.
Through the first 11 months of 2016 the average sleeping car fare on the Silver Star was $203.35 comapred to $251.58 for the same period in 2015.
The average sleeping car fares on the Silver Meteor for the same period were $280.06 in 2016 vs. $278.57 in 2015.
The spread between the Meteor and the Star average sleeper fares was $76.71 in 2016 compared to 26.99 in 2015.
A random sample of 10 dates between January 1, 2017 and June 30, 2017, for a trip from Washington, D.C. to Miami, shows the average fare for a roomette on the Silver Meteor is $108.60 more than a roomette on the Silver Star. The average difference for a bedroom is $195.80.
The only significant change in the Silver Star was the elimination of the dining car and the reduction in the sleeping car fares.
As noted the number of passengers paying for a room on
I Do not know what the demand is. It appears that that even Amtrak has no idea. Unless Amtrak can get the V-2 sleepers in service they may never know and that may not tell if all sleepers fill up ? Demand pricing makes it very difficult to find the revenue / ridership balance point(s).
One item for the Meteor if Amtrak could operate 4-6 sleepers it could support the diners by adding 1 - 3 dining staff.
To make a valid conclusion, if someone (us, Amtrak?) added the passenger ridership from both Silver Service trains during the relevant 11-month period and compared with the prior 11-month period, then we would know if the total passenger load is the same, more or less, with less revenue but lower food service costs, i.e., the net change.
Data regarding revenues, costs, etc., as well as ridership numbers, are available in the August Monthly Operating Report.
Waiting until the September 2016 numbers have been published is a better option. They include one full turn of the annual business cycle, which tends to smooth the impact of seasonal swings.
Before drawing any hard conclusions about the Silver Star experiment, it would be better to have several years of data for trending purposes.
True. However, in businesses that attempt to be more attuned to change, two years leaves you behind the switch.
We still do not have any idea what real sleeper ridership will be if there were enough sleepers… The difference Meteor / Star for a sleeper roomette tomorrow is $132 NYP - MIA.Taking the August monthly report and multiplying by numer of August Star riders the revenue difference would only be ~$2,000. Year over Year. But Star ridership this august was down %.5%. Meteor down 1.3%. Meteor revenue was up 6.3% but Star down 1.8%.
The number of riders on the Meteor was ~ 19% higher than the STar. A wild guess would indicate that the Star’s sleeper passenger traveled further. But what it all means ? Have no idea.
Amtrak has refused to disclose Revenue passenger miles for each train. But it does give total system is ~1% less than last year. Revenue is ~1.2% greater but that does not break out sleepers.
Meteor and Sar had 3 sleepers each and Crescent had 2. As you can guess Crescent sleeper ridership and revenuee were each ~ 33% less.
Now once again if during the heavy travel times on certain trains Amtrak could run 4 - 7 sleepers on those trains would that be enough F&B revenue to make diners get close to break even ? Inquiring minds ?
The Crescent which only had 2 sleepers
The change has been made. Hopefully it was based on robust market research data.
The post change analysis, which attempts to measure the impact of the change, as well as whether it met the goals of the change, requires a meaningful time frame. Anything less than a year or one complete turn of the business cycle is tenative.
Responding to market demands and analysis o