Passenger Trains > How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend??

How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend off of the Pope visit to Philly?? also did the Food Court in Philly 30 street station make alot of money from all the people in town??

railcity Wrote:
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> How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend off of
> the Pope visit to Philly?? also did the Food Court
> in Philly 30 street station make alot of money
> from all the people in town??

$259.63

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
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> railcity Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend off
> of
> > the Pope visit to Philly?? also did the Food
> Court
> > in Philly 30 street station make alot of money
> > from all the people in town??
>
> $259.63

Is that above the rail or does it include overhead?
 

Out_Of_Service Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> railcity Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend off
> of
> > the Pope visit to Philly?? also did the Food
> Court
> > in Philly 30 street station make alot of money
> > from all the people in town??
>
> $259.63

Is that before or after taxes? ;-)​

railcity Wrote:
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> How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend off of
> the Pope visit to Philly?? also did the Food Court
> in Philly 30 street station make alot of money
> from all the people in town??

In fairness to railcity, I am sure Amtrak did ok, but I also suspect that their costs were up considerably as well.  The food court--dunno.  I suspect it is leased out by Amtrak, so it does not really matter what individual vendors did in volume.

railcity Wrote:
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> also did the Food Court
> in Philly 30 street station make alot of money
> from all the people in town??

Yes, but they still will require taxpayer subsidies to remain open.  

> Yes, but they still will require taxpayer
> subsidies to remain open.  

Just like roads, bridges, airports, etc ., etc., etc.

Traffic to the Mass and the Philadelphia events was well under the high estimate.  If the police, secret service, etc staffing was based on the high estimate, that would push up costs while revenue dropped.

NJ Transit had Papal Passes on sale the morning of the first day, which suggests they had lots of capacity.  One Septa passenger said there were only 12 people on her train, which was restricted to their version of the Papal Pass.

I don't how any system could predict how many would show up. In hindsight, they all clearly over-restricted their systems.

41 extra trains were scheduled over the weekend but that was scaled back over 1/2 due to projected ticket sales being less than anticipated



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/15 14:09 by Out_Of_Service.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I don't how any system could predict how many
> would show up. In hindsight, they all clearly
> over-restricted their systems.

Yes.

Many  air b&b home and apartment owners who held out  top dollar weekend rent  ended up with no takers.

I think Amtrak did a pretty good job and was nimble enough to manage its exposure.

Why do say "over-restricted their systems?"

The operators all offered passes, almost none of which sold-out.  SEPTA, NJT, PATCO, no one sold-out their passes.

Philadelphia was expecting more than a million people on Saturday; the estimate was 183,000 attendees. 

The Secret Service and its draconian security for a National Special Security Event (NSSE) scared everyone away months ago.  The City and SEPTA pushed back and got some of the restrictions lowered but, still, very few people wanted to come.  They'd all been scared away by Secret Service's restrictions.  Hotels had rooms available right until the weekend.  Residents who thought they'd rent their rooms or their houses on Airbnb found that there weren't any takers.

The Pope was wonderful.  News reports say that the people who did attend had a great time, except those who were delayed for hours and hours by TSA's few and onerous checkpoints.  It was a success for most of those who attended.  Philadelphia looks great to the world watching on TV.The transit agencies planned for more people than they got, and they handled everyone who wanted to ride.   

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> I don't how any system could predict how many
> would show up.

They sold reserved tickets with time restrictions, so it should have been obvious.

> In hindsight, they all clearly
> over-restricted their systems.

It wasn't hindsight.  Many of us made comments on their plan regarding how it would prevent people from attending which made their way to SEPTA management and were rejected.

This is a quote from Kim Heinle of SEPTA with his prediction after a comment I made to another person was forwarded to him: "The trains will be full when they leave the first station."

Or maybe not.

In the end, the City and service on SEPTA sufficiently throttled access to the event to enable the utterly pathetic TSA to process the relatively small number of people they could handle (no more than 150,000 total and probably less) through their 10 security points over an 8 hour period.

knotch8 Wrote:
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> Why do say "over-restricted their systems?"

SEPTA shut down nearly all of its stations, making it nearly impossible for anyone in the suburbs to easily ride their trains since there was not parking, and SEPTA started sending out a message of "just plan on getting dropped off" to an event supposedly for families.  People aren't stupid and knew that upfront.

> The operators all offered passes, almost none of
> which sold-out.  SEPTA, NJT, PATCO, no one
> sold-out their passes.

It was much easier to not buy a special pass and just ride the regaulr subway system.

> Philadelphia was expecting more than a million
> people on Saturday; the estimate was 183,000
> attendees. 

That sounds about right for the total number of people I saw there including those outside the security perimeter.

Note that SEPTA and the city in the past have handled close to simultaneous Eagles and Phillies games with over 115,000 crowding into the staidum area.

> The Secret Service and its draconian security for
> a National Special Security Event (NSSE) scared
> everyone away months ago.  The City and SEPTA

Yes.  The other thing was the incredibly restricted number of tickets passes provided to the close-in secure area.  My parish of 2600 was given 132 passes.  The entire diocese of Allentown was given 400.  The event itself only offered 10,000 outside the distribution by the parishes.

So if you didn't have a special pass, you already knew you were going to end up 4 or 5 blocks away and just watching on a TV screen anyway.  So why not stay home?

> pushed back and got some of the restrictions
> lowered but, still, very few people wanted to
> come.  They'd all been scared away by Secret
> Service's restrictions.  Hotels had rooms
> available right until the weekend.  Residents
> who thought they'd rent their rooms or their
> houses on Airbnb found that there weren't any
> takers.
>
> The Pope was wonderful.  News reports say that
> the people who did attend had a great time, except
> those who were delayed for hours and hours by
> TSA's few and onerous checkpoints.  It was a

Especially the mistake of directing most traffic to two checkpoints on 20th and 21st streets on the south side.

> success for most of those who attended. 
> Philadelphia looks great to the world watching on
> TV.The transit agencies planned for more people
> than they got, and they handled everyone who
> wanted to ride. 

the 2 Main Line Septa stations open were Paoli and Radnor and THAT'S IT !!! people waiting for busses to trains walked into the city ... people were being backtracked only to stand in long lines at the 2 stations ... Septa reported fhey were moving 1000 people every 15 minutes inbound on Sunday ...

there was no way Wynnewood, Narberth, Maroon and Overbrook stations being so close to St Charles Borromeo seminary were going to be open but Ardmore or Bryn Mawr could've easily been used ...

the seminary itself is an impressively HUUUUUUGE piece of property ... stretching at least 1/4 along Monument Ave in Marion ... when i was track inspecting the Main Line i went by the seminary on a daily basis and no i was never tempted to go in and be celibate for the rest of my life

The only way to get from Trenton or anywhere inbetween to Philly was Amtrak (with their prices, forget it), or the RiverLine via Bordentown and Camden. I call that over-restricted.

The Pope is sooooooooo last millennium.

railcity Wrote:
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> How much Money did Amtrak make this weekend off of
> the Pope visit to Philly?? also did the Food Court
> in Philly 30 street station make alot of money
> from all the people in town??

I'm going to guess none. In fact, I would bet they lost money. 

A more accurate title would be, "How much Money did Amtrak loose this weekend??"

I do not know about the money, However I rode Amtrak both ways on Sunday rt trip from Penn station BALTIMORE, to 30th st. station Philly.

Every thing was very regimented @ 30th st, especially for the passengers at the end of the Papal mass.   Restrooms were closed--potty boxes were linrd up on the exterior of the station.  Restaurants were not accesable
from the main lobby, blocked off by portable metal fences.  If you wanted something, you had to exit the station and enter these establishments thru their exterior entrances on the sides of th station.

​Train loading was very organized, used the fences to corral, Organize, riders at the stairs/escalators for each departing train.  MY 8:33 pm departure for Baltimore was FULL, every seat was taken. 
 I as not aware of any standees.  My party of 3 was split up, but within four rows of each other