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MPALMER Member # 125	posted I recall when the first oil crunch hit in 1973. The "gas shortage" and price increase helped Amtrak's passenger counts climb, and helped Amtrak survive its early years. Will the same thing happen today, with oil hitting record-high prices? Will Amtrak's ridership increase? It has had some growth, but I'm not sure if the reason is because of high gas prices. The prices might not be record high anyway when inflation is considered. For one, there are a lot more cheap air fares available today. Also, today many people are a lot more casual about racking up large credit card bills (for everything including gas), so the lure of saving money by riding Amtrak is not as strong as in the past. MP
George Harris Member # 2077	posted The cap will not be set by cheap air fairs but by lack of equipment. You can not carry people in coaches and sleepers that do not exist. In 1973 there was no equipment sghortage. If they needed to run 18 car trains they had the equipment to do it. I hear the Cresenct now runs with 4 coaches, 2 sleepers. I rode it in 1995 when OVER CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS they had a third sleeper. I was only on it because I was at the station in Washington hoping for no-shows. They could probably have filled five or more if they had been available. Yet in the early 1970's, Southern would run two 15+ car sections on high-travel holidays. [This message has been edited by George Harris (edited 08-06-2004).]
Mr. Toy Member # 311	posted George is right. I think the recent increase in ridership on the LD trains can be largely attributed to getting wrecked cars back in service and opening Transition sleepers to revenue space. Amtrak's capacity is severely limited right now, and even with the slight increase in seats to sell it could not absorb a surge in demand that would result in the event of a major gas shortage as in '73 and '78.
MPALMER Member # 125	posted Unfortunately you are correct. A couple of times I have tried to book a trip (on walk-up) and could not due to lack of room. I suppose one business approach would be to raise fares enough to "almost sell out" but that would create more ill will and it really does not solve the capacity problem.

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