Originally Posted by AlanB
The Delta Shuttle schedule doesn’t have the same hourly schedule on the weekends that they do on weekdays. Those planes don’t get reassigned for 2 days.
The Delta Saturday schedule is cut about 50% from the weekday schedule. Acela is cut 80%. And no morning departures at all. For many, rattle-trap, slow Regionals are not alternatives.
Originally Posted by AlanB
Well Amtrak’s weekend travelers tend to be families more than anything, and most families don’t want to pay Acela’s higher prices just to save a ½ hour. Especially for a family of 4 or more, it can get a bit steep. Amtrak can’t afford to cut the prices low enough to make it attractive, since there is more at play here than just an idle trainset.
Did not the taxes of families also pay for Acela? Were those grants only to provide a nice ride to weekday business travellers paying full fares and everyone else rides the old stuff? Why not run your best equipment as the base load? What is the relative operating cost of Acela compared to a Regional?
Delta does not park the 738's on the weekends and roll-out some 732 clunkers just because yields are lower. They fly the 738's because those are the best and most economical planes in the fleet for the route. If Acela has to be parked because it is more costly to operate than the 20 year old trains, then that is one more example of Amtrak's design incompetence. New equipment should be more economical than the old. CASM for a 738 might be 30% or more less than the comparable CASM of a 732. Acela should be Amtrak's first economic choice for operation, not it's last. It should run all the time, not only when necessary.
Originally Posted by AlanB
You have salary costs, electrical costs, and of course wear and tear on the equipment to consider. Not to mention that most regional trains north of NY don’t even come close to selling out. If Amtrak can’t fill up the cheaper cousin, I can’t imagine how they are going to fill up the more expensive one.
Maybe with modern, fast trains, the passenger count would go up?
Originally Posted by AlanB
The Airtrain is a brand new system where cost was not an issue, whereas Acela runs on infrastructure that is over 90 years old and hasn't seen a decent overhaul in 40 years.
The Northeast Corridor Improvement Project took place in the late 1970's and early 1980's and was a major upgrade of the trackwork and signalling of the NEC (NYC to WAS) including the complete realignment of some curves between Baltimore and Washington. Welded rail, concrete ties, and modern signalling are all improvements that occured onthe NEC over the last 40 years, and much of it over the last 20 years. Amtrak's often stated allegation that the NEC is falling apart is a myth. Is there room for improvement: sure. But, by and large, the NEC is the best maintained railroad in North America.
The fact is that Amtrak's utilization rate of Acela is abysmal. Any airline that flew it's best planes as little as Amtrak runs it's best trains would be out of business in a blink of an eye. Once you buy expensive equipment, you use it as much as possible and to spread the fixed costs over more seat miles and to attract new customers. Maybe that mindset that is so blind to economics and business sense is one reason Amtrak is in so much trouble.