I thought this was humorous and illustrative of Amtrak’s inability to market itself properly.
It was my understanding that the Auto-Train was running substantially booked. If it is ‘losing money above the rail’ I’d suspect that the labor- and time-intensive aspects of the service might scale a greater overall deficit with greater patronage. Either of those considerations would make higher marketing costs or efforts relatively undesirable in the current political climate.
It’s also a bit of a political accident for Amtrak that it’s running a train for ‘haves’ who not only have automobiles to ship but enjoy luxurious things on the way…
According to Amtrak’s September Monthly Performance Reports, which is the end of Amtrak’s fiscal year, in FY25 the Auto Train had Adjusted Operating Earnings (AOE) of $9.3 million. It carried 266,000 riders and had an average load factor of 62.2%.
In FY24 AOE was $6.6 million and the riders numbered 266,600 for an average load factor of 62.2%.
In FY21 AOE was $2.3 million, riders numbered 199,400, and the average load factor was 55.2%.
AOE is before depreciation, non-cash portion of pension and other post-retirement employment benefits; GAAP income statement items funded with capital, debt, or other grants; project related revenue/costs, expense related to Inspector General’s office; and income tax expense and interest income, net.
The load factor tends to be higher during the fall and early winter with folks traveling from the Northeast to Florida. The pattern reverses in late winter and early spring when they go home. In the off season the loads are probably pretty light. To encourage more riders during this summer, kids ride free on the Auto Train through September 6th when they are accompanied by an adult.
The Auto Train is Amtrak’s only long-distance train to turn in a positive AOE, which it has been doing since at least the end of the pandemic.
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Perhaps it is underpriced in the peak seasons?
I suspect it runs with a short consist part of the year.
They used to make regular profits on the service. Not sure what happened there. I suspect they added too many frills and not enough cost recovery.
I believe CSX limits the length of Auto Train to 50 cars.
Most of the videos I have seen of Auto Train has shown it to have 16 passenger cars and 32 auto racks. I have no idea of the breakdown between coach seating and sleeper service, so I have no idea what the passenger count is on any of the trains that were pictured in the videos.
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Sam’s post is showing a profit.
The consists seem to vary in length between some of the YouTube videos.