Category Archives for Amtrak.
In what may be the single most Amtrak story ever, the last Amtrak train of the day following Christmas left all of its passengers behind at Union Station in Washington, D.C. Everyone stood ready to board, no one bothered to let the 100 or so people on, so the train left.
Amtrak launches Chicago – Miami train service November 10th. They don’t seem to be afraid that the upcoming launch of the Boeing 707 into commercial service in 1958 will derail the route’s success.
The Empire State Building took one year and 45 days from construction state to opening, beginning March 17, 1930, and having its official open May 1, 1931. We used to build things in this country. In many parts of the world, they still do.
With rail workers on the verge of going on strike, Amtrak will cease long haul train service starting Thursday and also shutting down most California service beginning Thursday and accelerating Friday.
Several commuter rails are also pausing service because of the way a strike would impact them, especially where they share track. Amtrak’s Northeast services are not affected.
For years, advocates of the security state dismissed civil rights concerns over intrusive TSA searches and requirements that air passengers show their papers by suggesting people have a choice – that this is all optional – they could take the train instead.
No more. The government’s rail corporation, Amtrak, has now asked the TSA to check passengers lists against the No Fly List.
Over at The Points Guy there have been several articles promoting train travel – and in particular travel travel public policy – and they’re really odd.
Amtrak isn’t as safe as air travel. And travelers shouldn’t be subsidized out of the pockets of non-travelers. The argument that “airlines get subsidies too” is an argument for fewer subsidies not an excuse for more. Train travel has a role to play in certain places but isn’t a panacea.
Should the National Railroad Passenger Corporation really be spending money on billboard ads questioning the safety of airlines, which another federal agency is responsible for ensuring?
Most of the readouts on Anderson’s tenure will repeat the falsehood that Amtrak is covering almost all of its operatings costs and will be profitable in 2020. To accomplish this chicanery Amtrak counts government subsidies from states as ‘passenger revenue’ and excludes depreciation expenses (20% of total expenses).
In fact Amtrak’s 2019 losses are about 35 times greater than reported. In other words they inflate Amtrak’s revenue and ignore costs in a creative accounting scheme to make Amtrak look like a financially responsible operation.
Amtrak doesn’t have enough passengers. On many of their routes trains ride mostly empty. They have a cost problem and they have a ridership problem. The government train operator is addressing the cost of meals, Amtrak has lost nine figures on food service, but doing surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) little to address labor costs.
However they seem to see their ridership problem as a lack of revenue problem and they’er looking to generate more money out of each passenger rather than boost the number of passengers.
Richard Anderson, the former CEO of Delta Air Lines who now runs Amtrak, claims that in fiscal year 2019 passenger revenue covered 99% of operating costs and that Amtrak will be profitable in 2020 (for the first time ever).
Both of those statements are false.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
