Passenger Trains > Amtrak Revenue Management

From a regular traveler on the Northeast Corridor out of New York Penn:

> Amtrak Regional Train 127 has been cancelled for the next 5 months so
> Amtrak can catch up on the Penn Station maintenance it didn’t do for
> the past several years. Other PM train schedules have been staggered
> to fill in the gap. Amtrak told people it would add cars to remaining
> trains to make the capacity the same.
>
> But Train 193, the 5:27 p.m. out of New York, has 8 cars, the same as
> usual. So, of course, taking advantage of the scarcity of seats due
> to a missing train, Amtrak Revenue Management has kicked up the price
> of a coach seat from Newark to Philadelphia to $115.00 or $1.44 per
> mile...in my case, for a coach seat in a car that had a toilet locked
> out, the other toilet stinks and obviously needs dumping (on a train
> that starts in New York), and a car-end door that’s broken and open
> on a 35-degree night.

Information/stories like this should be addressed to Richard Anderson. He is a customer service kinda guy.

Not many travel options from Newark; but from the same station you have
Greyhound for an average $25.00 per trip; and Bolt Bus for $15.00 to $25.00

Anderson is also yield management and maximize revenue guy. So I am not the least bit surprised if this would have his blessings.

GenePoon Wrote:
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> > mile...in my case, for a coach seat in a car
> that had a toilet locked
> > out, the other toilet stinks and obviously needs
> dumping (on a train
> > that starts in New York)

Reminds me of the last time I ever rode Amtrak in 2002, the Silver Star from West Palm to New York.

pdt Wrote:
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> Information/stories like this should be addressed
> to Richard Anderson. He is a customer service
> kinda guy.


Given management quality at Amtrak, a complainant may do more good by "airing" the complaint in these threads.

The NJT/SEPTA transfer at Trenton is an option, takes a bit longer but at a fraction of the cost.

Posted from Android

True, but that gets tiresome very fast if done repetitively. It is also torture to use NJT at all given their scandalous performance. Right now, we have:

NEC train #3827, the 8:28am from PSNY is CANCELLED, due to mechanical problems. Customers may use train #3915, the 8:39am from PSNY making local stops, today.
NEC train #3828, the 8:23am from Linden is up to 15 min. late, due to following a late train.
NEC train #3838 the 10:41am from Trenton is CANCELLED, due to operational issues. Customers may use train #3840, the 11:28am from Trenton.
NEC train #3930, the 8:11am from Trenton is CANCELLED, due to operational issues. Customers may use train #3932, the 8:26am from Trenton.

Once NJT loses a train from PSNY, the delays on its return train from TRTN, etc just multiply through the day.

"operational issues" is code word for no crew available. 6 trains were cancelled system-wide this AM rush.
An Academy bus driver told me this morning that 260 NJT crew called out on Friday, the frigid day after the snow storm.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/18 07:29 by joemvcnj.

Seems like Amtrak is in the proverbial Catch 22. There are widespread demands that it operate as a bona fide business, but the minute it actually does--in this case charging what the traffic will bear due to reduced supply--the cries of "you can't do that!" begin.

Paul Wilson
Arlington, VA

More trains were cut last summer and there really weren't any crowding problems. NEC has vast excess capacity in every day service.

People found other ways to go or tele-commuted. Ridership was way down, and it declines 5 - 10% over the summer months anyway. I have been on rush hour NEC trains that are so packed, there is no ticket collection, flesh is pressed up against the center doors, and vestibules filled, which isn't safe, and that was not because of a short consist or any prior train cancellations.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/09/18 08:18 by joemvcnj.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> People found other ways to go or tele-commuted.
> Ridership was way down, and it declines 5 - 10%
> over the summer months anyway. I have been on rush
> hour NEC trains that are so packed, there is no
> ticket collection, flesh is pressed up against the
> center doors, and vestibules filled, which isn't
> safe, and that was not because of a short consist
> or any prior train cancellations.

I think you meant to say "NEC ridership declines 5-10% over summer months. Meanwhile, LDT ridership increases over the summer months.

I was referring to NJT's, not Amtrak's.

joemvcnj Wrote:
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> Anderson is also yield management and maximize
> revenue guy. So I am not the least bit surprised
> if this would have his blessings.


No it would not.

Not much has changed since Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis' characters (George & Gwen Kellerman) rode the New Haven railroad from Boston to New York when the New York airports were fogged in. From the 1970 movie, "The Out of Towners."

h ttps://youtu.be/zanrcDgsafA

(close the gap between the first two characters and cut and paste to your browser)

Dcmcrider Wrote:
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> Seems like Amtrak is in the proverbial Catch 22.
> There are widespread demands that it operate as a
> bona fide business, but the minute it actually
> does--in this case charging what the traffic will
> bear due to reduced supply--the cries of "you
> can't do that!" begin.


Yeah they're so blind and dumb they can't make up their minds! Mica's a big example of that!

beautiful film clip !!

MEKoch Wrote:
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> beautiful film clip !!

Check out the entire movie if you get a chance. It's a classic!