France has new super-low train fares for their HSR routes called OuiGo.
“OuiGo brings the aviation low-cost concept to high-speed railways. In exchange for a cheap ticket, customers will be charged for a second carry-on bag; they’ll pay more for the use of an electrical outlet; they’ll be unable to change their tickets without a fee. There will be fewer conductors — only four per train, who will also be tasked with some maintenance. Double-decker trains will seat 1,268 passengers, not because seats have been compressed (unlike the airlines, thank god), but rather because the first class and dining car spaces have been replaced by economy-class areas. Trains themselves will be scheduled to run more often than typical TGVs, traveling about 80,000 kilometers per month, double the normal rate.”
That is an idea even I can agree with. In fact Amtrak could do the French one better and simply add a second class bilevel car to its existing trains. New Jersey Transit uses very comfortable bilevels now in there commuter service. This is 4 across seating but the seats do not recline. No outlet; no wi fi. Baggage goes on an overhead rack or under your seat. No services except ticket collect. The cars are bright enough to read easily. Seats do not recline. They would be more than acceptable for a New York to Boston trip.
Amtrak charges $49 New York to Boston on April 17 (Northeast Regional; not Acela).
Bolt Bus charges $8 to $13 for the same trip (depending on time of travel).
If Amtrak charged $24.50 for a second class (bilevel) seat New York to Boston I bet plenty of people would upgrade from bus to train. And they could do this on any train line they run simply by adding one or more bilevel cars.
I believe both Mega Bus and Bolt Bus offer outlets and WiFi on their buses so why would a bus rider switch to a more slightly more expense double decker rail car with less ammenities? I would think the installation and the subsequent cost of electricity for the outlets is negligible considering the amount of eletricity being used by the AEM-7 to pull the train.
Overall it’s not a bad idea for Amtrak but the train mentioned in the article is operating over an extensive passenger rail network that was built and funded by the French government. Amtrak can barely get enough funding to maintain let alone upgrade the Northeast Corridor or expand beyond it.
Of course this is all very hypothetical since there is no reason to believe Amtrak will run double decker cars at reduced fares.
Of course WiFi and electric outlets would be a good idea. But no one gets that on New Jersey Transit now and yet there Northeast Corridor trains run quite full. The real reason is that a train, even a commuter train has bigger and more comfortable seats than a bus has. (Except, of course, the older Comet cars with 5 across seating).
And yes, Amtrak would have to come up with money to purchase the cars. But certainly cars must be purchased from time to time anyway. I don’t expect it will happen but I don’t see that it is impossible either.
There was a time when Amtrak did something similar to what the French Railways are doing.
The Pennsylvania Railroad ran and Amtrak continued up to a few years ago Clockers. Clockers were trains added to the schedule so there would be hourly service between New York and Philadelphia. The Pennsy allowed commuters with commuter tickets to ride their clockers. Amtrak continued that tradition. For several months I rode an Amtrak Clocker from Princeton Junction to Newark. The Amtrak abandoned its Clocker service.
To give a fare comparison, today NJT charges $400 a month for a commuter ticket between Trenton and New York. Amtrak also sells a commuter ticket for $1077 between the two stations. I don’t know how many people commute on Amtrak within New Jersey but I suspect almost all prefer NJT with its lower fare.
However, it seems to me honoring NJT tickets within New Jersey was a good idea for Amtrak. After all, they were running trains with empty seats and the extra fares they collected, while a lot lower than their own, were all pure profit.
Depends significantly on how fast Amtrak got REIMBURSED by NJT for the tickets that were honored. Wanna bet it took a while? And involved a great deal of whining and bureaucratic delays?
When Amtrak sells a ticket they get the money up front. And all the personnel cost of collection and accounting is handled ‘inline’ by already-paid staff doing their jobs. Getting blood from a stone money out of a cash-strapped state commuter agency is not likely to be as smooth, or as costed-out. And all this BEFORE Amtrak tries charging NJT something ‘more’ than the ticket face value, or above whatever NJT considers its cost basis per passenger, to reflect the better service, etc…
f, for one, enjoyed the “Am and Cheese sandwich” and a cold can of Coke with a big cup of crumbled ice, from one of the movable chairs at the end of the car, watching the scenery between NYP and 30th St and hearing the sound of the track and the GG1’s horn, many times. Better and somehow more satisfying than most other meals.
I have no idea how long the reimbursement process took. What I do know is that for many years Amtrak honored NJT monthly tickets. And people who rode Amtrak trains (like me) always rode Amtrak. The trains were far more comfortable than NJT.
Of course even on the Northeast Corridor most NJT commuters did not have this option. Clockers did not stop at most NJT stations. Some stopped at Metropark, some stopped at New Brunswick and all stopped at Princeton Junction and Trenton. But they never stopped at a lot of stations.
Amtrak does not run clockers any more but they do still run Keystone service. They could sell their own monthly tickets limited to NYP to New Jersey stations for a substantial discount and they would fill seats that are now empty. But they don’t do that either.
The last thing Amtrak needs to do is run empty seats end to end. The second to the last thing thing Amtrak needs to do is run empty seats for 170 miles and fill them for the last 30.
Trenton to New York is 58 miles. Perhaps Amtrak should take a car off ithe Keystone trains. I known know just where the numbers fall. But until the day that it does Amtrak would be better off collecting a modest fare on seats that are now empty.
I bet you are right and that Amtrak cannot directly compete with New Jersey Transit. And when Amtrak stopped running its Clockers NJT added its own trains to take their place so NJT might not now be willing to enter into another agreement.
However, Trenton to New York is not the only possibility. I think Amtrak might look into reducing fares in some places for specific reasons in order to use excess capacity.
Why should Amtrak try to compete Philly to NY? Last Fri. Ridewithmehenry checked Amtrak fares to NY at 2PM and all were at premium prices from 1:45PM through the afternoon. The $8.75 fare to Trenton was a subway token by comparison, and NJT had already lifted the $10.75 from Trenton to Port Jervis. which was like a half token! No, Amtrak is filling the seats and getting the bucks just fine.
I agree, Henry, Amtrak does not try to compete between New York and Philadelphia. Frugal train riders can take NJT to Trenton and then walk a few feet and get on a SEPTA train to 30th Street. And I’m sure discount buses are even cheaper.
I seem to remember when AMTRAK ran the clockers that they used Heritage equipment. The 5;00 PM NYP - PHL was usually 16 cars all full from NYP. The planned demise of Heritage equipment caused AMTRAK to allow njt to run the route ?
Yeah…PRR Clockers were famous…Amtrak took them over as inter city trains but handed them off to NJT which cut them back to Trenton. I always thought the Philadelphia service was going to resume but it never did. It is perhaps because the NJT-SEPTA two hour hand off system is cheaper and utilized or because Amtrak is doing OK with the service and marketing they are presenting. If there were to be a return to true Philadelphia-NYP Clocker service, I wonder which present service(s) would suffer most…
Did NJT really cut the Clockers back to Trenton? When Amtrak stopped running them NJT added some express trains from Trenton stopping at Hamilton, Princeton Junction, Newark Liberty Airport, Newark and New York.
NJT has always had trains that connected with SEPTA trains at Trenton. It is a convenient service with a much lower fare than Amtrak and you can ride SEPTA as far as Wilmington. However, SEPTA trains run very slowly.