Replacing Amtrak long-distance trains with shorter ones?

Amtrak is considering breaking up some long-distance trains into shorter corridor ones as part of its Congressional reauthorization. While in some cases it may make sense, the financial advantages may not pan out.

Amtrak has proposed to replace an unspecified number of overnight, long-distance trains with daytime corridor service, presumably sponsored by states. Of Amtrak’s 15 long-distance routes, the Palmetto is already a daytime train. Other trains are likely too long or lack substantially sized cities along their routes to make this transition worthwhile, think the Auto Train, California Zephyr, Empire Builder, Southwest Chief, and Sunset Limited. But the remaining nine trains could theoretically be replaced by daytime corridor service.

Background 

Amtrak’s key rationale for cutting long-distance trains is cost savings, primarily labor costs. Day trains only require some café service, coach seating and sometimes business class, with an engineer, conductor, and a café attendant as labor. Overnight trains require a dining car, coach seating and sleeper cars, with at least two engineers, two conductors, several dining car crew, and sleeping car attendants. This would also reduce the number of expensive sleeper and dining cars it needs to replace its aging long-distance fleet of Superliner railcars.

Amtrak’s proposal has been tried before. In the late 1960’s, the New York Central Railroad replaced several of its overnight services with day trains to save money. One of Amtrak’s largest costs is labor. Its New York City-Buffalo-Detroit-Chicago train was split into two day trains, New York City-Buffalo and Chicago-Detroit-Buffalo. One of its New York City-Cleveland-Chicago trains became two trains, New York City-Buffalo and Chicago-Cleveland-Buffalo. One of the trains referenced by the WSJ, the City of New Orleans, was originally a fast day train and would leave Chicago at 8 AM and arrive in New Orleans at 11:55 PM, taking just 15h55m and averaging 58 mph despite 22 stops. Two of those stops requiring connecting other trains from St. Louis and Louisville in ten minutes, a move that takes an hour on Amtrak’s Lakeshore Limited. Amtrak’s Palmetto train runs on a similar schedule, leaving New York City at 6:02 AM and arriving in Savannah at 9:04 PM. It leaves Savannah at 8:20 AM and arrives at 11:56 PM back in New York City.

Other countries have also seen their overnight service disappear, particularly in Europe with the proliferation of low-cost airlines and expanded high-speed train service. After Germany’s Deutsche Bahn dropped all overnight service, half of the service was taken over by Austrian Railways. After high-speed service began between Madrid and Barcelona, overnight service from Madrid to Paris was dropped even though high-speed trains take a little over 9h and require a transfer. In contrast, the UK is investing its two overnight services with its London-Scotland service receiving new cars.

Short-haul trains in the US benefit from subsidies from states. In 2008, the Passenger Rail Improvement and Investment Act (PRIIA) required all states to subsidize trains running less than 750 miles within their borders. When Amtrak began service in 1971, it inherited some state services and subsidized those itself. But over time, states began subsidizing additional service and by 2008, the situation had become unequal with some states receiving “free” trains from Amtrak while others had to pay the entire amount. PRIIA equalized that situation and states such as New York found themselves subsidizing train service it had previously received from “free”. Long distance trains were explicitly omitted from those rules and would continue to be subsidized by Congress. But Amtrak’s reauthorization provides an opportunity to rework those rules and could allow Amtrak to obtain additional subsidies from states.

Amtrak’s proposal would also allow better departure and arrival times for key markets along corridors. For example, the Lakeshore Limited’s current schedule has poor timings for the Chicago-Cleveland market with arrivals in the middle of the night or early morning. It also requires an hour stop in Albany to split the train for Boston and New York City sections. Retiming the train would allow for more reasonably arrival times in Cleveland and provide another day train on the New York City-Niagara Falls corridor. In theory, this could attract more riders than would be lost from overnight services.

Old schedule

	New York City	Albany	Depew	Cleveland	Chicago
Departure/Arrival	3:40 PM	6:10 PM	12:12 AM	3:33 AM	9:50 AM
	Chicago	Cleveland	Depew	Albany	New York City
Departure/Arrival	9:30 PM	5:38 AM	8:46 AM	2:31 PM	6:23 PM

New schedule

	New York City	Albany	Niagara Falls	Niagara Falls	Cleveland	Chicago
Departure/Arrival	9 AM	11:30 AM	6:50PM	9 AM	10:50 AM	6:20 PM
	Chicago	Cleveland	Niagara Falls	Niagara Falls	Albany	New York City
Departure/Arrival	9 AM	5:30 PM	8:20PM	9 AM	4:20 PM	5:50 PM

Amtrak’s proposal will have to address fundamental challenges of US passenger service 

First, all long-distance trains run on tracks controlled by freight railroads. Reconfiguring service would require their cooperation as schedules would move from overnight to the daytime.

The good news is that freight railroads are moving from more frequent unscheduled service to less frequent scheduled service. In theory, this creates more track capacity and would allow Amtrak to better schedule its trains to avoid delays due to freight trains. In addition, the number of coal trains has declined, typically the slowest and most capacity intense ones, and fewer oil trains are running due to the decline in crude oil prices.

Even if a freight railroad agrees to allow more passenger trains, running more than one train per day would likely require some investment, particularly if Amtrak wants its new service travel times to be competitive with driving. Presumably, its reauthorization to Congress would include specific projects and cost estimates to be funded by Federal grants, loans, or state grants.

Second, while operating day trains cost less, ticket revenue is also substantially lower. While the Empire Service to Niagara Falls averages $61.76 a ticket, the Lakeshore Limited averages $77.63. Amtrak’s Silver Palm used to run between New York City and Miami but was truncated to Savannah in 2004. While the Silver Meteor averages $109.38 a ticket on the Miami run, the daytime Palmetto receives just $75 a ticket. However, the Palmetto costs $32.7 million and loses just $3.3 million but the Silver Meteor costs $72 million, more than double the Palmetto, and loses $34.7 million, ten times as much.

Third, labor costs should be better addressed on existing routes prior to any major change. Railroad unions remain strong but there needs to be a frank discussion of fewer staff members on long-distance trains in exchange for more trains overall for staff to operate. While sleeping car attendants in every car made sense at some point in the past, some functions should be automated such as dinner reservations and setting up beds. Amtrak has tried replacing dining car service with cheaper options, most recently last year, and ended up returning some hot food items. Whether this option balances between cost and customer satisfaction remains to be seen.

Fourth, Amtrak’s financial accounting has long been described in many circles problematic or even fatally flawed. For example, the Rail Passenger Association claims that the Amtrak Performance Tracking system allows the company to understate its Northeast Corridor costs and overstate its long-distance train costs. Congress has required Amtrak to substantially improve its accounting system but a 2013 Amtrak OIG report and 2016 GAO report both found the company was overly reliant on cost allocation and still lacked accurate cost information. Amtrak has made smaller changes without accurate cost information before. While the company made substantial changes to its private railcar program in 2018, it did not know the true cost of providing that service before making those changes.

Fifth, PRIIA required Amtrak to write a series of performance improvement plans for its long-distance trains. While staff came up with a lot of great ideas, relatively few have been implemented. Prior to a major change, implementing more of those improvements may attract more passengers and more revenue. 

While I understand Amtrak’s rationale, it is hard to say whether two corridor trains will attract more passengers and cost less overall than a single overnight train. I think it makes more sense to provide additional service along current long-distance routes first. Amtrak has the key ingredients for developing realistic service expansion plans. In May 2007, Amtrak made a successful presentation for additional service to Lynchburg along an existing long-distance route. This service was a runaway success and paved the way for substantial state investment in passenger trains. There are other good candidates such as Chicago-St. Paul and Chicago-Cincinnati which would generate strong ridership with some travel time reductions. While tempting to gamble a lot for a reauthorization opportunity, a cautious approach may pay off instead.

Nine long-distance routes possibly targeted for replacement corridor service
Capital Limited: Chicago-Cleveland-Pittsburgh-Washington>
Chicago-Cleveland-Pittsburgh
Washington-Pittsburgh

Cardinal: Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati-Charleston (WV)-Washington-New York City>
Chicago-Indianapolis-Cincinnati
Washington-Charleston (WV)-Cincinnati

City of New Orleans: Chicago-Carbondale-Memphis-Jackson-New Orleans>
Chicago-Carbondale-Memphis
Memphis-Jackson-New Orleans

Coast Starlight: Los Angeles-San Jose-Sacramento-Portland-Seattle>
Los Angeles-San Jose-San Francisco
San Jose-Sacramento-Portland-Seattle

Crescent: New York City-Washington-Charlotte-Atlanta-New Orleans>

New York City-Lynchburg-Charlotte
Charlotte-Atlanta
Atlanta-New Orleans

Lakeshore Limited: New York City-Albany-Buffalo-Cleveland-Chicago>
New York City-Albany-Buffalo-Niagara Falls
Chicago-Cleveland-Buffalo-Niagara Falls
Boston-Albany

Silver Meteor: New York City-Washington-Charleston-Savannah-Orlando-Miami>
New York City-Washington-Charleston-Savannah
Miami-Orlando-Savannah

Silver Star: New York City-Washington-Columbia-Savannah-Orlando-Miami>
New York City-Washington-Columbia-Savannah
Tampa-Orlando-Savannah

Texas Eagle: Chicago-St. Louis-Little Rock-Dallas-Fort Worth-San Antonio>
Chicago-St. Louis-Little Rock-Dallas-Fort Worth
Fort Worth-Dallas-Austin-San Antonio