posted
The March 2008 Trains contains a three-page fold out map showing all Amtrak routes and stations symbol coded with the total number of passengers boarding and detraining at each station in ranges of up to 50, 50-249, 250-999, and over 1,000 per day.
I don't know it is online or not. I found it at the local newsstand. I much prefer the hard copy.
Many of the categories surprised me.
Bakersfield California averages over 1,000 passengers a day. I have to wonder if that was a misprint.
Newport News has over 250 passengers per day. That exceeds, Dallas, Ft. Worth, Houston, San Antonio, Omaha, Memphis, among others.
With one daily long distance train, Atlanta exceeded 250 passengers per day. I have always told anyone who would listen that Atlanta has a market for Amtrak, which should close the gap to Columbia, SC to connect Atlanta to Richmond and Florida.
All the airport stations, Milwaukee, Baltimore, and Newark, exceeded 250.
None of the South Florida stations exceeded 250. This confirms again that Amtrak has let Florida service slip.
Looking at all the stations in the middle of nowhere with less than 50, again I have to wonder if Amtrak marketing is missing an opportunity by not marketing locally in small markets with local advertising, staffed stations, group support, and directed communications.
Posts: 82 | Registered: Jul 2007
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posted
Thanks, Amtraksupporter, for letting us know of the magazine fold-out. I am always behind in reading TRAINS..but I just browsed the March issue because of your post.
It is interesting that Bakersfield is a yellow star, especially as it is not a hub but a starting/ending point. The busiest stations, in order of first to last: 1. New York 2. Washington, DC 3. Philadelphia 4. Chicago (thought it might be higher) 5. Los Angeles 6. Boston South Stn. 7. Baltimore 8. Sacramento 9. San Diego (gold star..1000 (+) passengers per day. 10. Albany-Rensselaer 11. Wilmington 12. New Haven
The article points out that (no surprise) 13 out of the 30 busiest stns are in the NEC from Boston to Washington..but they mention the number of gold stars (1000+ per day) between San Diego and LA (San Diego, Solano Beach, Irvine, Fullerton, and LA). As might be expected, most of the green dots (stns with 0-49 passengers/day) are along the run of the major east-west LD trains. The article divides the routes into 3 catagories..Long Distance, Corridors, and Corridor-Long Distance combination. Interesting article.
Richard
Posts: 1909 | From: Santa Rosa | Registered: Jan 2004
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I'm not surprised that Bakersfield averages over 1,000 passengers daily. It has four trains departing and arriving daily and is served by a network of Thruway Buses for points South nd East.
Likewise, Newport News has a pair of daily departures and connecting bus service. Lots of military bases in the Newport News area to generate passengers as well.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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quote:Originally posted by notelvis: I'm not surprised that Bakersfield averages over 1,000 passengers daily. It has four trains departing and arriving daily and is served by a network of Thruway Buses for points South nd East.
David: That is six trains arriving and departing daily. Four to Oakland (with bus connection to San Francisco), and with bus connections to Sacramento and two to Sacramento with bus connections to Oakland - San Francisco.
Also, these trains are usually set-your-watch-by them reliable. Let's just say that BNSF is meeting 110% of their obligations here. The crews and the dispatchers seem to take real pride in making it work right. Thanks to having a son in Fresno, I have made four round trips Oakland to Fresno in the last six months, and the late trains have either been due to UP between Oakland and Martinez, equipment related, or passenger train meeting passenger train.
On one occasion after just over 2 minutes standing in a siding, the conductor came on and announced, "the reason we are moving at the blazing speed we are right now, is that we are waiting for our northbound train 000 (I have fogotten the number on that occasion, but it was one of the passenger trains).
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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quote: Also, these trains are usually set-your-watch-by them reliable. Let's just say that BNSF is meeting 110% of their obligations here. The crews and the dispatchers seem to take real pride in making it work right. Thanks to having a son in Fresno, I have made four round trips Oakland to Fresno in the last six months, and the late trains have either been due to UP between Oakland and Martinez, equipment related, or passenger train meeting passenger train.
On one occasion after just over 2 minutes standing in a siding, the conductor came on and announced, "the reason we are moving at the blazing speed we are right now, is that we are waiting for our northbound train 000 (I have fogotten the number on that occasion, but it was one of the passenger trains)
I believe that some of those Amtrak/Amtrak meets are accounted for in the schedule and are not really upsetting the on time performance of the train. Sometimes the conductors include this in their announcement.
-------------------- Railrev Escondido, CA Posts: 99 | From: Escondido, California | Registered: Jul 2003
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quote:Originally posted by railrev: I believe that some of those Amtrak/Amtrak meets are accounted for in the schedule and are not really upsetting the on time performance of the train. Sometimes the conductors include this in their announcement.
They are, but on this occasion the northbound was about 10 minutes late. On a single track line, being 10 minutes late to a meet point makes the train being met also 10 minutes late.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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posted
Someone should also compare the higher-volume stations with the way the senators from those states voted on the Amtrak bill. For instance, in spite of the high volume to Atlanta, both Georgia senators voted against Amtrak!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Just FYI, for those who don't have access to the magazine, exact numbers of boardings and alightings at each station for 2006 and 2007 can be had from Amtrak's state fact sheets. However, looking at a map is much less tedious, if less precise.
Posts: 2649 | From: California's Monterey Peninsula | Registered: Dec 2000
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I posted about this on railroad.net several days ago. Some salient points from that post:
Of the 30 stations with more than 1,000 daily boardings/alightings ("gold stars"), 16 are in the Northeast, 10 in California plus Portland and Seattle, and exactly two in the rest of the country (Chicago and Milwaukee). These 30 points probably account for two-thirds of Amtrak's ridership.
The Cardinal and Sunset are especially poor performers among the LDs. Only one point between New Orleans and Los Angeles has more than 50 daily B/A (San Antonio), and none between Charlottesville, VA and Indianapolis.
Only two Florida points have above 250 B/A (Sanford and Orlando). Despite twice-daily service, Tampa, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and even Miami all have less than 250. This is a shocker.
Basically, beyond the West Coast, the NEC, and Chicago-Milwaukee, Amtrak patronage is insignificant.
Now, how about those LD trains?
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
When I first saw this map and the figures on it I felt the same as rresor, but after thinking about it I was not so sure. The problem with these figures is that they do not compare like for like. There are going to be more boardings/alightings when there is a frequent service of trains, as in California and the NEC. The LD routes with one daily train cannot reach the B/A totals of routes with many trains a day. Also, I wonder if the Cardinal and Sunset figures take account of their three day a week service? There may be two Silver Service trains, but what is their total seating capacity? Could the Florida station's figures be limited by train capacity? More trains should equal more boardings/alightings if there is demand for the service, as the extra Illinios services seem to have shown. John
Posts: 41 | From: Yaxham, Norfolk, UK | Registered: Jul 2006
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posted
Well, you cannot just pay attention to Florida STATIONS, you have to pay attention to how many passengers are riding the FL trains in toto. The numbers at the stations are misleading because many of those stations are very close together, offering passengers the opportunity to deboard at their convenience, but dividing those passengers up. That is certainly the case in southern Florida--West Palm Beach, DelRay, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami, maybe another in there too, I forget--but they are all very close together. So the traffic numbers to those stations is being divided up in a way that doesn't happen in many other areas.
Now, of course, there are areas where the traffic is heavy even though the stations are pretty close. BUT those are generally stations where there is not another train service that passengers use, like Metro North. In south Florida, the local stations are served by that much cheaper and more frequent little train they have there, so that would take away the local traffic count. . . .
However, no question the most passengers on the FL line are going to Orlando; also, a lot of people get off there to head for western FL via bus, getting picked up, etc.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Ah, my hometown of Bakersfield! First off, a shameless jingle: We have a georgeous station out here! As mentioned already, out of those 1,000 daily, only a couple hundred of them are starting or ending in Bakersfield (apart from maybe train crew hahaha). Bakersfield is the Gateway between Northern and Southern California. All six trains (soon to be 7 in the near future-a third to Sac) are met in Bakersfield by anywhere between 5 to 7 thru-way busses connecting passengers to Southern California. For anyone that's a station/people watcher: its quite a sight when a train arrives and the herds head across the platform straight to the bus loading area. Anybody taht has witnessed the sea of humanity at Bakersfield (especially on a weekend or holiday) when the busses arrive or the train arrives can attest: 1000 passengers seems conservative.
Imagine this...prior to 7/4/2004(year??), those 1000 were serviced out of a small double wide trailer leased by BNSF that served as the station...not the beautiful facility we have now.
-------------------- Patrick Posts: 387 | From: Bakersfield, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Patrick, even though I haven't had reason to set foot in the Golden State for now seventeen years, anything I have read regarding your State level passenger train initiatives suggest it is $$$$ well spent.
Further, what I think the passenger train advocacy community will "conveniently" overlook is that your State's initiative IS the model of what the Bush administration has envisioned for 21st century rail passenger service.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Originally posted by notelvis: I'm not surprised that Bakersfield averages over 1,000 passengers daily. It has four trains departing and arriving daily and is served by a network of Thruway Buses for points South nd East.
David: That is six trains arriving and departing daily. Four to Oakland (with bus connection to San Francisco), and with bus connections to Sacramento and two to Sacramento with bus connections to Oakland - San Francisco.
Also, these trains are usually set-your-watch-by them reliable. Let's just say that BNSF is meeting 110% of their obligations here. The crews and the dispatchers seem to take real pride in making it work right. Thanks to having a son in Fresno, I have made four round trips Oakland to Fresno in the last six months, and the late trains have either been due to UP between Oakland and Martinez, equipment related, or passenger train meeting passenger train.
On one occasion after just over 2 minutes standing in a siding, the conductor came on and announced, "the reason we are moving at the blazing speed we are right now, is that we are waiting for our northbound train 000 (I have fogotten the number on that occasion, but it was one of the passenger trains).
Ah....yes.....I overlooked the pair of San Joaquin trains that operate to/from Sacramento.
Maybe it's time I flew out and had some left coast train-riding!
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
Something else on this map made me ask if tit was a misprint.
Looking at the Chicago Detroit in the center page upper right, Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor both appear as yellow squares, 259-999 passengers per day, but Detroit appears as a triangle, 50-249 passengers per day. Can this be right? Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo have more Amtrak traffic than Detroit?
Posts: 82 | Registered: Jul 2007
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I saw the map at the newsstand as well, and found it fascinating.
Southern California from Santa Barbara south certainly is a beehive of passenger activity, isn't it? It rivals the NEC for the most numbers.
Do these numbers on the map for SoCal also include Metrolink and Coaster trains? There's quite a few stations there that aren't on the map because they are only Metrolink stations without Amtrak Surfliner or Coast Starlight service. Just this afternoon I took Metrolink from Orange, CA to San Juan Capistrano. I could've taken a Surfliner from Anaheim, thus padding the 250-999 daily passengers who use Anaheim, but instead I hopped on a Metrolink train at the lovely old Orange depot three miles east of Anaheim at a Metrolink-only station. Once we got to Santa Ana's depot, the Metrolink followed the route of the Surfliner, although we did stop at Mission Viejo which is not a Surfliner stop.
And all of those SoCal stations bring up another point concerning the issue sojourner mentioned regarding Southern Florida. SoCal has many stations served by the Surfliner service, often within 10 miles or less of each other. And in between those Surfliner stations, or on entirely different routes that parallel or branch from the Surfliner route, there are literally DOZENS of additional Southern California stations with multiple trains per day stopping at them.
This map of Amtrak routes, plus the mental overlay of the additional Metrolink and Coaster heavy rail lines in Southern California reminded me of just how criss-crossed SoCal is with popular and succesful passenger rail lines. Not to mention the spreading light rail lines in LA, San Diego, and Escondido/Oceanside.
And not to be forgotten in SoCal are Mr. Disney's fleet of passenger trains running daily at Disneyland, with a faithful recreation of the old Pacific Electric Railway's "red cars" coming soon to Disney's California Adventure. Posts: 56 | From: Orange County, CA | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
A couple of points. First, Mr. Alweg, the numbers shown are specifically Amtrak boardings, and don't include any users of commuter rail services at the same points.
Second, *of course* there are more riders at stations with multiple train frequencies. That was part of my point: that if you run a train three times a week in each direction, you still have to staff certain stations and maintain all of them (clear platforms and parking lots of snow, for example), yet the cost is only borne by six trains a week. As the numbers show (less than 50 boardings/alightings a day in Houston!), almost no one is riding.
As for the low numbers at Detroit, that's easy -- the patronage is all in the suburbs. Nobody much gets on or off in "downtown" Detroit (in quotes because, really, there's no "there" there). Kalamazoo and Ann Arbor are much busier.
But I remain shocked by the low ridership in southeast Florida. Sojourner's point is well taken. There are six stations (Sojourner forgot Deerfield Beach) within about sixty-five miles. But still, if we assume each has 100 boardings/alightings a day, we don't get to 1,000. No gold stars, even for a part of Florida with 3.5 million people, a population density about the same as Los Angeles, and two Amtrak trains per day.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by rresor: But I remain shocked by the low ridership in southeast Florida. Sojourner's point is well taken. There are six stations (Sojourner forgot Deerfield Beach) within about sixty-five miles. But still, if we assume each has 100 boardings/alightings a day, we don't get to 1,000. No gold stars, even for a part of Florida with 3.5 million people, a population density about the same as Los Angeles, and two Amtrak trains per day.
And yet the example you mention above, six Amtrak stations in 65 miles, couldn't be a more perfect fit with SoCal, especially my own backyard here in Orange County.
It's 65 miles from Los Angeles Union Station to the southern edge of Orange County at San Juan Capistrano, with six stations regularly serviced by Amtrak Surfliners between LA and San Juan Capistrano. But that 65 mile stretch of SoCal track past six stations through Orange County has a couple of gold stars and all the rest in the 250-999 range. The distance and the number of stations may be identical with Southern Florida, but the number of passengers is night and day.
And if those station passenger level numbers don't even include the Metrolink or Coaster heavy rail commuter lines, then that means the stations are really jumping with hundreds of additional daily passengers not counted on the Amtrak-specific map. Which makes sense, because the Orange County stations always seem to be busy and alive with activity when I see them, and Los Angeles Union Station is positively teeming with people and trains every time I pass through there.
Posts: 56 | From: Orange County, CA | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
Concerning Florida, of course the SE Fla. area also has the Tri-Rail commuter service, which uses the same tracks and stations as AMTRAK. I don't know anything about the frequency of their trains, but I would assume that much of the "local" ridership in that part of the state uses Tri-Rail rather than the 2 AMTRAK trains.
On the other hand, Orlando seems to always have quite a few travelers heading NORTH (not so many heading south) on AMTRAK, and Winter Park is a close 2nd to the boardings at Orlando.
Apparently we are going to get a light-rail system in this area (Orlando/Central Fla.) after all, in a few years -- the system will use the same tracks as AMTRAK, and they are already constructing at least one new light rail station near our home.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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Mr. Rich, even considering Tri-Rail's shortcomings, namely that its Northward expansion is facing a "Stop Signal' in that the two counties, namely Martin and Lucie, immediately North of Palm Beach want no part of it (the enabling legislation calls for a perpetual County level funding base, such as a Sales Tax) and that it really does not serve any central business district, especially Miami, is now providing meaningful transportation to the region (expansion Southward through Dade could prove a safer "political' bet - but I best defer to Mr. Resor whether there is still a physical connection South of Hialeah either to SAL or FEC trackage to Homestead).
I have reasonable expectation that the proposed regional rail service through Orange and Seminole counties (likely its sponsors will be confronted with the same funding constraint as is Tri Rail) will move forth. While likely the only train a family visiting Disneyland will see is the one in Magic Kingdom, there are still low-wage workers serving the Rodent's Court that could well make use of such.
However, since CSX will continue to operate freight and Amtrak passenger trains over the route, I believe the initiative calls for "heavy' rail, as combining light and heavy rail operations is a strict FRA no-no. The only exception to that I am aware of is the service between Trenton and Camden NJ, where there is a carefully defined 'window' between railroad freight operations and that of the light rail.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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MightyAlweg: How about that on the southeast coast of Florida there are two long distance trains, but on the soutwest coast of California there are 13 trains between San Diego and Los Angeles. You can't ride something that is not there when you want to travel.
The service around Orlando will be a commuter rail operating on existing CSX tracks, the ex-ACL main. Some freight will still be there, but most of the freight will move to the ex-SAL line through Ocala and Wildwood. For information about what has been done and what is being planned, see www.cfrail.com
Mr Norman, both ends of the Baltimore light rail had freight operations, run only late night outside the passenger service hours. I think only the north end operation is left. The south end was the Baltimore and Annapolis remnant. The north end was the ex Pennsylvania RR line to Harrisburg, which had quite a few years earlier ceased to be a through line but still had some industries with rail service at the time the Balto light rail was built.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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quote:Originally posted by George Harris: How about that on the southeast coast of Florida there are two long distance trains, but on the soutwest coast of California there are 13 trains between San Diego and Los Angeles. You can't ride something that is not there when you want to travel.
That's a very valid point. Especially considering the additional dozen or more heavy rail trains per day that run that same LA to San Diego route through the same stations under the operation of Metrolink or Coaster.
But all of those Surfliners and Metrolink trains passing through every 45 minutes every day weren't always there. The Surfliners are direct descendants of the old Santa Fe San Diegans (that ran far more limited schedules even in Santa Fe's heyday), but the Metrolink and Coaster trains simply didn't exist in any form until 15 years ago.
I know very little about railroads in Florida, but it seems to me there must have been more than two trains per day in the past. And couldn't there be a market today for medium distance commuter rail alongside the LD routes?
I feel that local communities, and even the county or state level, have just as much responsibility to get transportation infrastructure built than the Feds do. On Wednesday the federal Secretary of Transportation visited Orange County and viewed the site for the proposed ARTIC station in Anaheim.
ARTIC has gained a lot of traction in recent months and Anaheim's city council and mayor, alongwith the local transit agency and Amtrak California, has pulled together an impressive list of private funding and local taxes to get the big new station built. After 15 years with two Presidential administrations and various political swings to the left and right in Congress the Feds still can't come through with any funding for ARTIC. So Anaheim and Orange County aren't waiting any longer and are just doing it themselves.
That type of can-do attitude in Anaheim might be needed in Florida if there is a dearth of trains being offered in the Sunshine State.
If anything, with ARTIC you could bump up Anaheim's standing on the station map we are talking about and push it over 999 Amtrak passengers per day to a Gold Star. That would be the third Gold Star station between LA and San Diego! http://www.octa.net/artic.aspx
posted
Hey Gil -- I didn't understand the last part of your post above. Are you saying that FRA prohibits the operation of "heavy" (freight and AMTRAK) rail and "light" (the proposed regional commuter service)rail on the same tracks? I didn't quite understand that, and as far as I know, our proposed light rail will be using the same CSX trackage as everything else. At one time there were proposals to build a new "dedicated" right-of-way for the light rail, but I think that proposal is dead now due to the costs of building additional rail, acquiring the ROW, etc.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Mr. Rich, while Mr. Harris has identified other light rail operations that use active railroad ROW's, the operations are clearly segregated into defined "windows", i.e. light rail by day, freights by night.
The Central Florida initiative calls for use of "heavy' rail equipment, as there will be both CSX freight and Amtrak passenger trains operating simultaneously with the CF trains.
The Colorado Railcar DMU pictured at the linked website is considered "heavy' rail equipment as is any equipment operated by Amtrak.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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"Light Rail" is the descendant of the street car, such things as Baltimore, Hudson-Bergen, Pittsburg, San Francisco's Muni, etc. that operate on streets, open right of ways, or a mix of streets and open ROW with some grade separations, almost always powered by overhead wire.
"Heavy Rail" is more the descendant of the New York and other city subway systems, such as Washington DC's WMATA, Atlanta's MARTA, San Francisco Bay Area's BART, etc, all fully grade separated mostly powered by third rail, and with various levels of automation in the operation.
Neither of these run in mixed traffic with freight trains or even Amtrak or commuter passenger trains. If they operate on the same track there is a time of day division, in the current jargon, "Temporal" separation.
The FRA prohibits operation of a "non-compliant" vehicle on the same tracks and in the same time frame as regular railroad style freight and passenger trains. If you built a "light rail" or "heavy rail" vehicle to the same crashworthiness standards as currently required for a passenger carrying railroad coach, then you could operate them in mixed traffic. So far as I know, none of the current light rail or heavy rail vehicles come anywhere close to these standards, and the various European manufactures of these things like to claim that it is impossible to do so.
What is being planned in Central Florida is neither of the above. There was an Orlando Light Rail plan in the past, but so far as I know, this plan is currently in a state of suspended animation, if not dead.
What is being planned in Central Florida is to operate commuter trains along the current railroad line while keeping the Amtrak trains and some freight trains on the same track in the same time frame. They are using the name "Commuter Rail" for this system, which is as good a name as any. The reality is that the equipment operated on this system must meet all requirements of the FRA and probably also the AAR (Association of American Railroads) for operation on the general network of railroad tracks in the US.
Posts: 2808 | From: Olive Branch MS | Registered: Nov 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Spokker: I demand they list Toontown as a gold star station!
Not to get too far off topic or give away too many secrets, but the Disneyland Railroad will host around 35,000 to 40,000 riders per day during busy days. Those folks won't all make the 20 minute grand circle tour of Walt Disney's Magic Kingdom, but they will at least board and disembark one of the four railroad consists through one of the four Disneyland stations.
Add in the big numbers from the Disneyland Monorail system, and the Pacific Electric Red Car attraction coming in 2010, and the daily numbers riding Mr. Disney's fleet of trains probably could rival the daily ridership of all of Amtrak's LD trains.
Posts: 56 | From: Orange County, CA | Registered: Jun 2007
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quote:Originally posted by MightyAlweg: Not to get too far off topic[/QB]
Might as well.
You know, it's a silly conversation to be honest, but I imagine if you factored in the Walt Disney World Monorail System and even took into account Tokyo Disney's Resort Line, you'd be getting into some huge numbers for the amount of people Disney (and the OLC) moves daily.
Speaking of WDW, it is unfortunate that they have abandoned monorail expansion in favor of buses. Was it their intention to copy Amtrak?
Perhaps there should be a thread about transit in and around Disney parks and how guests move to, within, and out of the various properties.
Posts: 4 | Registered: Feb 2008
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posted
Well, I just returned from FL so wanted to post in this strand again. First, to clarify: In my post about FL (where, as Mr RResor notes, I forgot Deerfield Beach among S FL stops!) I also forgot the name of the "little local train"--I meant TriRail! Anyway, you cannot compare Amtrak usage in the 65 miles from WPB to Miami to that of CA because in CA people riding localling ride Amtrak but in S FL, Trirail takes all the local traffic. In fact, according to the schedule, you COULD NOT board my southbound FL Amtrak train after West Palm Beach--stops were for departing passengers only--and those traveling locally from West Palm Beach to Miami or places in between HAD to take TriRail. So comparing Amtrak service here to S CA line LAX to San Diego is not really a fair comparison.
That being said, I did note on my southbound train, the Silver Star, there were not many skeeoer passengers south of Tampa. That's because few people would take the Star from the NE to S FL if they could get the Meteor, which is faster as it is more direct, since it does not do the Tampa-and-back "side trip." (I took the Star only because I boarded in Raleigh, NC, and the Meteor doesn't go there!) There did seem to be a number of coach passengers making in-FL trips, mainly boarding at Tampa and Lakeland (since lots of people going from the JAX-to-Orlando area to S FL also catch the Meteor).
Departing on the Meteor, OTOH, we had 3 sleepers, all quite busy after we left W Palm, and completely filled by Orlando (although some were to be used by train personnel, as there is no transition car). Coach passenger traffic boarding in West Palm, where I boarded, was also quite heavy, including lots going to Orlando, some to N FL, and a handful to Savannah. There were also a lot of coach passengers going long distance, esp boarding in Orlando.
Trains are no doubt much busier this time of year than the height of summer; in fact, I do get the impression that in this busy season, if Amtrak could add sleepers and keep the price somewhat reasonable, they would all be filled. However, given the configuration of the trains, I don't think more sleeper passengers could be handled--the dining room, for one thing, is simply too small. As it was, the staff had to take both lunch and dinner reservations, and breakfast was MIGHTY crowded, with people waiting for tables. . .
One other thing to note: Another reason Orlando is so busy is that a lot of people going to W FL (places like Sarasota, Fort Myers) get off there and get met by someone driving or park their car somewhere thereabouts and pick it up to drive; some also catch a bus; so it's not only a busy stop in its own right but a busy "through" stop. Has a very nice-looking bus terminal too--or was that in Lakeland? Anyway, train passes a very nice-looking bus terminal, heckuva lot nicer than the ones I encountered in my Nashville to Atlanta bummer bus trip.
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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I think there's no question that Amtrak could fill more seats and rooms if they ran them. Amtrak's own data indicate that ridership to/from Florida on the "Silver Service" trains is down 33% since 1993.
Sojourner, Amtrak used to run TWO diners on trains to Florida, in order to meet the demand for meals. They got this idea from SCL, which did the same thing on at least four of its trains (Florida Special, Meteor, Star, and Champion) until 1971.
Posts: 614 | From: Merchantville, NJ. USA | Registered: Aug 2000
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Looking forward to hearing bout your latest trip! I see you managed a stop in Raleigh!
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
David, I posted a trip report already; you must have missed it. The strand should be down below somewhere. I think it's called "Report on My Travels," or "Report on My Sojourn." And I'm quite sure it mentions you!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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Mr. Supporter, according to Sep 07 Monthly Performance Reports, Year to Date (12 Months; Amtrak has a Sep Fiscal Year) was 217,822 passengers or a 5% increase over like '06 period.
Posts: 9975 | From: Clarendon Hills, IL USA (BNSF Chicago Sub MP 18.71) | Registered: Apr 2002
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