Amtrak adds WiFi to Fight Disruptive Free Bus Internet

Amtrak said the installation of wireless Internet access on its Acela Express trains would be complete in March and initially free to passengers. Competing bus services along the NEC have offered WiFi for over a year and their fares are much cheaper than Amtrak's. This is good that Amtrak will now be offering Internet access on their trains but by the end of 2010 there needs to be free WiFi on all Amtrak trains across all of the US, not just on Acela. I want to see both Amtrak and bus service succeed but bus service along the NEC has been gaining on Amtrak the past year and making Amtrak look bad ($1 fares, free WiFi, roughly same travel times, nearly as comfortable). There's room for both Amtrak and bus service to be profitable along the NEC I feel as both can serve different types of travelers across income ranges. Commuters can't take Bolt bus from Philly to NYC but they can take Amtrak. Commuters need WiFi on Amtrak and commuters take regional trains, not Acela.

Rail stimulus funds to bypass Northeast

The Boston Globe in reporting that the NEC has been virtually shut out of $8 billion worth of federal stimulus money set aside for high-speed rail projects because of a strict environmental review required by the Obama administration. Because such a review would take years, states along the Northeast rail corridor are not able to pursue stimulus money for a variety of crucial upgrades.

This is lame but I think the NEC will still get federal stimulus funds for normal track maintenance and upgrades over the coming years. The upgrades may not boost Acela speed but they'll help the regional traffic along the NEC. So this means more trains per hour and fewer delays and perhaps faster times with gains on the order of 5 - 10 minutes as opposed to 30 minutes or more that a real high speed train would see.

NJ Transit awards contract to replace major commuter bottleneck

NJ Transit awarded $87.7 million worth of contracts this week to advanced replacement of the Portal Bridge (Portal Bridge page on Wikipedia). The two-track bridge, which carries Amtrak's Northeast Corridor tracks into New York Penn Station, will be replaced with a stationary $1.7 billion five-track structure that will serve the existing tunnels beneath the Hudson as well as the new planned tunnel under the Hudson. The new bridge will be high enough to allow Hackensack River ship traffic to pass underneath – ending the routine disruptions to train service. It is scheduled to be completed by 2017, in concert with the new Hudson tunnel. Amtrak's trains carry 30,000 passengers per work day over the bridge.

Amtrak has record Thanksgiving

The Times Union states that systemwide Amtrak stated it carried ~686,000 passengers from Nov. 24 to 30, including 127,557 on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This beat the old record of systemwide 666,716 riders in 2007.

Amtrak to rehab Pelham Bay Bridge along Northeast Corridor in the Bronx

ProgressiveRailroading.com reports that $10 million will be spent by Amtrak to strengthen and repair the more than 100-year-old Pelham Bay Bridge's piers, piles, abutments and foundations that support the tracks, transmission lines and catenary wires. The project will make the bridge more reliable and reduce maintenance on the structure and will be completed by October 2010. Wikimapia has a satellite view of the bridge from Google Maps.

Amtrak extends fare sale again, will now be on for more than one year

Amtrak, which cut fares up to 25 percent on its Northeast corridor in
February, is extending those cuts for the second time this year to
March 31 meaning the lower fares will be in place for over a year. The
lower fares require a 14 day advanced reservation and there are
blackout days around the upcoming holidays.

It's a good idea for Amtrak to discount its fares to boost ridership
numbers but two week advance notice limits its success. My last post
talked about buses increasing ridership along the NEC and Amtrak
should take this seriously. NEC is Amtrak's money maker, they need to
do more than just this temporary fare discount to ensure that they
don't lose market share to bus service.

Amtrak's Northeast regional trains carried 640,000 passengers in
October, up from September and October 2008. System-wide, Amtrak saw a
decline in passengers last month.

Bus companies finding a 'new demographic' - bus service taking business away from Amtrak?

A UPI story states that long-distance bus travel has risen 10 percent, while travel by train and plane has declined in the past year. The Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development said bus passenger numbers were up while Amtrak reported an 8 percent decline in passengers on trains January through August the Boston Globe reported. Among its findings the Chaddick Institute said bus travel is cheap and consumer technology is widely available on buses. Buses were the first public mode of travel to have free WiFi, ticket sales rose 67 percent on the Boston to New York route in the past 12 months. More than 55 percent of the riders are 18 to 34 years old and "tech savvy," the Boston Globe said.

I can personally verify this. I took Bolt Bus from Boston to NYC and it was pretty good and only $15 one way and it did have free WiFi (I didn't use it but a lot people had laptops and seemed to be using WiFi). Amtrak needs to get WiFi. The bus takes just about the same time between many cities along the NEC, is way cheaper, and has WiFi. Competition is great, this will force Amtrak to get their shit together and offier WiFi on their trains. All mobile phones have WiFi now, everyone has a mobile phone, WiFi is a must have for Amtrak for 2010, it's baffling why Amtrak can't pull this off and add this service and with the all the fed money we're giving them you need to do this. Amtrak will look like dolts if they can't do this.

Acela WiFi - more info

Some other info on AMtrak WiFi offered up by Jay Boehmer:

• Amtrak plans to launch free WiFi on Acela Express trains in the second quarter of 2010. 
• Wi-Fi installation already is underway on Acela Express trains: "This service will initially be offered at no cost to our customers, though pricing may change depending on customer response, system performance and costs" Amtrak said.
• Amtrak expects the free service to help increase ridership, adding $4.3 million in incremental revenue through the end of fiscal year 2014. 
• Amtrak said it is preparing to extend Wi-Fi to other services, "depending on market response," with Northeast Regional trains likely the first

Acela to offer free Wi-Fi Internet access in 2010 as part of an effort to attract more riders

Bloomberg story stating Amtrak will offer free WiFi on Acela trains. This is good but they should offer it on all trains along the Northeast Corridor. And why did it take Amtrak so long to do this? Maybe the federal stimulus scratch helped out.

Amtrak Loses $32 Per Passenger on Avg. Acela Makes $41/passenger, Northeast Regional loses $5

Amtrak lost money on 41 of its 45 train lines in 2008, including a $145.23 per passenger loss on the Silver Star that serves Tampa on its New York-Miami run, a Pew Charitable Trusts research group reported Tuesday. System-wide losses ranged from about $5 to $462 per passenger. The average loss per passenger was about $32, four times the $8 per passenger Amtrak computed using different methods, according to the study by Subsidyscope, which reports on how federal subsidies are used.

The Northeast corridor has the highest passenger volume of any Amtrak route, greatly enhancing efficiency. The corridor's high-speed Acela Express made a profit of about $41 per passenger. The more heavily utilized Northeast Regional lost almost $5 per passenger.

Will Amtrak cut the biggest money losing accounts? I doubt it. There's complaints about Amtrak not being efficient but when certain routes are proven to be huge money losers they just never seem to go away.

I'm surprised to see the Northeast Regional trains lose almost $5/hour. If you look at the site: http://www.subsidyscope.com/projects/transportation/amtrak/ and choose the Northeast Regional line you'll see the line actually makes almost $20/passenger. But the site notes this disclaimer:

"Including depreciation and other unallocated costs adds an additional loss of $24.29 per passenger"

This total is deducted from every passenger across all Amtrak lines thus resulting in about a $5 loss for each Northeast Regional passenger. But the NEC regional is a money maker if you ask me. If you cut the most inefficient Amtrak lines, that $24.29 in 'other costs' will go down quite a bit I'm assuming resulting in all NEC trains showing a profit. Trains will make money where there is population density.