David Benton wrote:i guess you could take the annual costs attributed to each train , ( for ones like the empire builder , it is over $ 100 million ) , and divide it by the number of cars , then by the number of days . you would have the full costs allocated to that car then .
That wouldn't work, because you'd be dividing it between coaches and sleepers, and allocating the costs equally regardless of what type of car. No doubt a sleeper is more expensive to operate than a coach, but it should also generate more revenue as well. Taking that $100 million you'd also be including a lot of costs unrelated to the sleeper itself, especially if it includes the fully allocated costs such as reservations, maintenence, the wages of the janitor in David Gunn's office, etc.
What you need is sleeper revenue and sleeper costs. Since sleeper fares include meals, you'd also have to include the relevant portion of dining car costs.