After doing an illustrated newsletter for family and friends about my Los Angeles-San Jose trip last week on the Coast Starlight, it occurred to me that readers here might find a chart I compiled for the newsletter about the train interesting.
The chart was made possible by Candy, my friendly coach attendant, who gave me a copy of the train's passenger manifest in response to my questions, and timekeeping information from Amtrak status maps.
One of the important points I think the chart illustrates is how many people use an Amtrak long-distance train. Granted patronage may have been a bit higher than normal on the Friday before the Memorial Day weekend, but nevertheless my train -- over the course of its full run to Seattle -- carried around 800 passengers. Part of the utility of this form of transportation is that a train that connects 30 cities and towns provides 435 itinerary combinations for its passengers, not just transportation between its end points.
Another point is how the Starlight's schedule has been tweaked with strategically placed padding so that its on-time performance at the end of the trip and major stops along the way can be improved. My train was down nearly an hour at one point and still got to Seattle 50 minutes early.
For the informed readers of this forum I think there's a lot of information to be gleaned from the chart (red blocks indicate maximum numbers in the various categories).
This is an interesting chart. The things that pop out for me are: 1) The number of passengers who buy a sleeper for day space (they leave the train by Emeryville), and 2) The number of passengers who left the train in San Jose. Those are some pretty big numbers for SJC!
Posted by notelvis (Member # 3071) on :
That chart is really interesting.
This is the kind of data which may prove beneficial in preserving the long-distance passenger train.
Posted by Doodlebug (Member # 4564) on :
I, too, was struck by the number of people getting off in San Jose and the day sleeper passengers. There were several groups on the train that day, and one may have been getting off in San Jose.
It would be great to be able to look over a series of charts so you could get a better picture of travel patterns. This one day snapshot probably has some typical trends and some exceptional statistics but there's no way to know what they are.
Notelvis is noticing the same thing that prompted me to ask Candy my questions. Most people tend to compare passenger train loads the same way they do an airliner, but they are much different in the ways passengers use them. There's a constant "churn" going on in the makeup of the train's passenger load that is evidence of a lot of useful transportation being provided -- and used.