Need More Passengers? Run More Trains!
This is about two of Amtrak’s long-distance trains, each one offering a fabulous ride through country that ranges from beautiful to stark, from interesting to spectacular. And each with something else in common.
The Cardinal (at Charlottesville, VA, Union Station, above) takes a leisurely southern route between Chicago and New York. It is, in my book, the most scenic of all Amtrak’s eastern trains, with highlights of the trip being its run through West Virginia’s New River Gorge and crossing the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia.
After departing New Orleans, the Sunset Limited crosses the Mississippi on the Huey Long Bridge, rolls through the bayou country of Louisiana, crosses the Pecos River in West Texas (photo above), comes within a few feet of the Mexican border in El Paso, then snakes through the buttes and mesas of New Mexico and Arizona on the way into Los Angeles.
Both are great rides, yet both of these trains have for years come under criticism—from passengers for not providing adequate service and, especially in the case of the Sunset Limited, from the geniuses in Congress for having poor ridership.
The thing is, while the criticisms are legitimate, the reason is pretty obvious: both trains only operate three days a week in each direction. That’s certainly a valid reason to complain about poor service. I’ve often tried to work each of those trains into an itinerary, but the three-days-a-week schedules haven’t meshed with mine.
As for the poor ridership, I’m far from being an expert, but if it’s more passengers you want, wouldn’t it make sense to run each of those trains every day? In fact, run this situation by any real passenger rail expert and dollars-to-donuts you’ll be quoted an old railroad axiom: double the frequency, triple the ridership.
In the next few weeks, radio stations all along the Sunset Limited’s route will be airing public service radio spots which call for an upgrade to daily service for that train. The spots were produced by the National Association of Railroad Passengers and I’ll post a link so you can hear them as soon as they start to air.
I certainly hope the Sunset Limited/Gulf Coast radio public service announcement campaign is successful.
And regarding the Cardinal, has there been any recent encouragement toward making it a daily train?
I think I have read some positive things about the new Hoosier State train (Chicago to Indianapolis the other four days a week)that now has a cafe car, and did I even hear it had a dome car?
I know of no specific progress toward a daily Cardinal, although agitation for that has been going on for several years and is relentless. I, too, have seen reports of some very nice equipment being used on the “new” Hoosier State. A number of our NARP members will be riding that train to our meeting next month in Indianapolis and I will have first-hand reports to pass along from there.
Extend the Sunset Limited from New Orleans back to Orlando.
Yes! There are two radio spots–one asking for a daily train, the other urging restoration of daily passenger service east of New Orleans. Although as I understand the current thinking, it would not be the Sunset, but rather a daily train running between Orlando and New Orleans and connecting with the Sunset.
Yes. This weekend was the annual meeting of MARP, and the NARP president came to speak. If attempts to restore it are successful – and there is a reasonable hope – it will *NOT* be the Sunset Limited. There is political baggage and bad feelings about that; it will be a NEW Gulf Coast service.
Please, as an advocate I ask – stop referring to it as the restoration of the Sunset Limited. Doing so works against the goal of restored/improved service.
The goal is the restoration of Gulf Coast service. Period. Not the Sunset Limited. When Amtrak or congress hear these terms they mean specific things – we need to be clear and consistent that what we want is “Gulf Coast service”.
The sensitivities are understood. Reference is simply to restoration of passenger service east of NOL.
If we ever had an honest dialogue re the cost of passenger train operations, it would become quite obvious that the incremental costs going from tri-weekly to daily are quite minimal; however, the increase in revenues far exceeds those costs–directly attributable to the now daily train. As well, what tends to be overlooked is the opportunity for increased revenues derived by connections to other trains. I would also surmise that the cost to position equipment and crews would also decrease with a daily operation. This issue has been researched and studied ad nausea; however, we have a Congress focused on the price of hamburgers in the diner, instead of how to finance additional equipment for more Amtrak frequencies.
Looked at another way, how many daily round trips does Megabus alone operate between the mini markets along the Sunset’s route, e.g., New Orleans-Houston; Houston-San Antonio, etc?
“””s well, what tends to be overlooked is the opportunity for increased revenues derived by connections to other trains.”””
Maybe, theoretically true. But connections with a DAILY service… that is very possibly not anything worth anything. And increased frequency on Long Distance routes is a *VERY* thin hope; Amtrak does not have the consists or the staff to do it even IF they got the green light from congress.
“””how many daily round trips does Megabus alone operate between the mini markets along the Sunset’s route”””
I don’t know, but inter-city bus service is on a general decline. You might discover it is a daily service. I’ve tried to schedule travel by bus recently… it isn’t much better than trains. I was surprised how bad it was in terms of availability, frequency, and speed.