United Rail Passenger Alliance

Volume 7, Number 12

This week we look first at Amtrak’s slow pace, then at continued nationwide wrong-think surrounding Amtrak’s new venture into high speed rail; and we wrap up with a guest commentary by our Andrew C. Selden. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 43

1. If you are an airline, which pays landing and takeoff fees, plus user fees at every airport, plus user fees for the federal and international air traffic control systems, you make the most money operating long haul flights, preferably international long haul flights. As an airline, you stuff as many passengers as will fit in a tiny, tiny space known as “coach” class, and you make sure everyone knows you’re giving them peanuts, allegedly because so many people are allergic to peanuts and they don’t know it. You sell these people their “meals” and drinks, and hope many passengers purchase alcoholic beverages because you make a fortune from them, but – at the same time – don’t want any particular passenger to purchase too much and become drunk and disorderly. Read more…

Volume 6, Number 33

1. Good ideas never go bad, they just sometimes are put on a shelf. Read more…

Volume 4 Number 20

1. Let’s continue our conversation about ways Amtrak can help itself – using current assets – to generate more revenue than expenses, widen its route matrix to provide a more appealing transportation product for its passengers, and lessen its long standing dependence on annual doses of free federal monies.The rules of this exercise are simple: Expand travel offerings by altering existing routes, terminals, and destinations without creating a need for many new stations (very expensive), or pioneering complete new routes (while desirable, new routes are an exercise for another time with another set of criteria and a lot of money), or creating a need for new equipment. A large part of this exercise consists of putting existing equipment to better use, or bringing warehoused equipment out of storage to become a product asset versus a stagnant asset. Read more…

Part I

Part II

Dr. Adrian Herzog, VP Research, URPA

The potential ridership on any given transportation system can be accurately modeled mathematically. We begin by modeling a single route going from location A to location B. Such a non-stop system models non-stop long distance air service and express non-stop rail service. Only two “routes” are possible in such a system, from A to B and from B back to A. One might argue that this represents only one round trip market. However, since the demographics of A and B are often quite different, each direction represents a different market to be exploited.

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by Andrew C. Selden and E. P. Hamilton III

Reprinted with permission from Passenger Train Journal, 1984.

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