Why not use spare commuter trains for discount service?

gprimr1 wrote:

Until the NEC is running 12-car trains every 15 minutes, like we'd see in Europe or Japan, there's plenty of room for improvement.

Does the USA, even in New York, have the population demand for this? I'm not thrilled about spending money to run empty trains.

I'm not really in favor of this idea. People would buy out the cheap tickets and the more expensive Regionals would run empty at a loss.

I do agree that sold out trains should be getting more capacity, and that they can do more aggressive marketing to fill off peak trains that aren't full, but I don't agree Amtrak's job is to provide subway frequency service on the NEC.

It's not even really practical. For example, NJTransit isn't going to want to give up its slots over Portal or through the North River Tunnels for this, and it's not practical for them to run their trains to DC.

What if Amtrak ran their discount Regional Service out of Hoboken? On the weekends there should be enough slots to run push pull service out of Hoboken Terminal. As there is pretty much no service over the line out of Hoboken and the waterfront connection remains unused.

If there's a lot of demand, perhaps SEPTA/MARC could increase their fare so that the subsidy is small and through service doesn't cannibalize Amtrak.

Last year I took Metro-North to NYC rather than Amtrak. I didn't want to be tied to taking a specific train, the fare was probably lower, and they run every 1/2 hour off peak. And the equipment was brand new. It took 2:00 vs 1:30 to cover 60 miles, stopping at every stop and averaging just 30MPH on the NEC. So, MNCR charges less, their equipment cost is probably higher for new rolling stock, the crew is paid for 33% more time (possibly making it up with shorter turnaround time). Use less electricity running slower but waste more electricity stopping and starting even with regenerative brakes.

I hear that the Air National Guard has C130 transport planes sitting idle on the weekends ... maybe Southwest or Jet Blue can lease those and provide discounted air service!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I'd suggest that the key problem to be overcome is not equipment availability, but labor expense. The discount bus lines have a viable business model largely because they employ a minimal number of employees who I believe work at the lower end of the bus driver wage scale. Would a discounted rail service be able to reduce its labor expense in a similar fashion?

NJTforever wrote:What if Amtrak ran their discount Regional Service out of Hoboken?

NO, NO, NO, NO!

For the last time, Amtrak didn't spend billions on consolidating service to PSNY, only to turn around and use HOB on a whim. This is seriously starting to bother me as much as the Turboliner posting fiasco.

RailBus63 wrote:I hear that the Air National Guard has C130 transport planes sitting idle on the weekends ... maybe Southwest or Jet Blue can lease those and provide discounted air service!

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

I'd suggest that the key problem to be overcome is not equipment availability, but labor expense. The discount bus lines have a viable business model largely because they employ a minimal number of employees who I believe work at the lower end of the bus driver wage scale. Would a discounted rail service be able to reduce its labor expense in a similar fashion?

When you come right down to it, labor is only a tiny portion of the cost to run the train (at least in the case of the train crew) , it only takes a few seats sold at the upper fare bucket to cover the cost of the train crew for a one way trip. After that you still have a few hundred more seats you can sell to cover other costs. Since both the Acela Express and Regional trains cover their operating costs and then some, this is not an issue. As far as the discount bus viable business model, they also use street side pickup, which eliminates the need for a station with all the overhead which goes with it. To go one step further, certain discount bus companies(ie Megabus) were famous for picking up their passengers outside of train stations. You know, the ones the railroad has to pay for, all the while the bus passengers get to use those facilities for free.