Amtrak's Empire Builder

This article was taken from the Midwest Rail Report, V. 12, no. 3. Go to www.midwesthsr.org or call 773-334-6758 for the complete issue. S p e c i a l R e p o r t AMTRAK’S EMPIRE BUILDER: A “MULTI-TASKING MOBILITY MACHINE” THAT BAFFLES THE “EXPERTS”

By Fritz Plous So it might be better to think of there is terrible in the winter. Without the Amtrak’s Empire Builder not as a long-dis- train there is no way to get around.” Physicists argue that the bumblebee tance train, but as a series of heavily used The average trip length on the cannot fly because its body is too heavy and intercity corridor trains linking places such Empire Builder is 845 miles, a little more its wings too small. But the bumblebee does as Fargo and Spokane, Milwaukee and than a third of the train’s total route. not know this, so it flies anyway. Glacier National Park, or Winona and Station stops sometimes are long because Beware of “experts.” Wherever they Grand Forks. people get on and off at every stop, even look they find another bumblebee. “And it is heavily used,” says Ray tiny rural points that most interstate Take the so-called “passenger train Lang, A m t r a k ’s director of government tourists ignore. experts.” They claim Amtrak’s Chicago- affairs in Chicago. “I’ve visited every com- “The Builder is their lifeline,” Lang Seattle Empire Builder shouldn’t work: its munity the Builder serves and the people says. route is too long, its speed too slow and its up there depend on it—college students, First-class few finance many in coach territory too thinly settled to attract today’s business people, tour groups, overseas vis- Interestingly, Builder passengers trav- travelers. itors who want to see the American West, eling more than 1,000 miles make up only The Builder doesn’t know this, and so retirees, families visiting relatives, Native 23 per cent of the train’s ridership—but it’s the best performing train west of the Americans traveling between reservations, they generate 63 per cent of the revenue. Alleganys. tourists and skiers headed for Glacier, The 47 per cent who travel less than 500 Looking at what the Empire Builder patients trying to get to the Mayo Clinic in miles provide only 20 per cent of the rev- actually does, not what its critics think it Minnesota.” enue. And sleeping-car passengers, who does, explains why. The Builder is their l i f e l i n e pay premium fares, provide 43 per cent of Not your g r a n d f a t h e r ’s “There is no other form of transporta- the Builder’s revenues, despite making up long-distance train tion up there that links the big cities with only 16 per cent of its passenger list. Technically, the critics are right on one the small towns the way the Empire “That effectively refutes the argument point: The Builder starts its run in Chicago, Builder does,” Lang says. “There is very you sometimes hear that Amtrak shouldn’t and finishes up in Seattle, 2210 miles and little bus or air service. The Interstate is be operating trains for so-called ‘wealthy two time zones west after 43 hours and 10 100 miles south—all they have is U.S. 2, leisure travelers,’” says Chicago-based minutes on the road. In that sense it is which is mostly two-lane. The weather up continued on page 13 indeed a “Chicago-Seattle” train. But that’s not the way its patrons use it. Only about 9 per cent of the Builder’s pas- sengers travel the entire distance. The remaining 91 per cent of the Builder’s passengers are short- or medium- distance travelers. They ride between any and all combinations of Chicago, Seattle and 45 intermediate stations (A smaller section of the train branches off from the main train at Spokane, Wash., and finishes its run in Portland, Ore.).

Count ‘em: 931 trips on one train! Photo: Vlad Kevrosky In fact, the permutations of all those stations yield no less than 931 possible city On December 26, 2002 the eastbound Empire Builder left St. Paul, MN headed for Chicago with roughly 500 seats, 350 coach and 150 in private rooms with separate cafe and dining facilities. Additional capacity can be added at marginal cost. The maximum capacity pairs for which Amtrak’s computers can of the newest 747 is 524 seats. print a ticket good on the Builder. w w w . m i d w e s t h s r . o r g PAGE 3 MIDWEST RAIL REPORT Vol. 12, No. 3 08/04 S p e c i a l R e p o r t

Distribution of Passengers Distribution of Revenue Distribution of Largest and Smallest by Trip Length by Trip Length Volume City Pair Markets Empire Builder - FY2001 Empire Builder - FY2001 Ranked by Revenue - FY2001

The Empire Builder combines multiple trip types and lengths into a single, high-volume vehicle. As a result, the high-revenue sleeper passengers make it possible to provide service to passengers making shorter trips at a more reasonable cost. While the top ten city pairs provide the bulk of passenger volume, trips between smaller cities are too big to ignore.

Empire Builder, continued from page 3 destination pairs that no other transporta- 90 million Americans won’t fly— Amtrak Media Relations Manager Marc tion resource can match its versatility or they need more trains Magliari. e ff i c i e n c y. And there are lots of potential riders “The first-class travelers make train still out there, Coston said. travel possible for the coach passengers,” “ A multi-tasking mobility machine” “Thirty per cent of Americans sur- Magliari said. “I’d call that a good deal. “I don’t consider the Empire Builder a veyed have told pollsters they absolutely The airlines use the same economics to Chicago-Seattle train,” says Chicago will not fly, either out of fear of flying or keep their coach fares reasonable.” lawyer James E. Coston. “That’s just where just plain discouragement with the airline But no matter how the data are sliced, its rolling stock originates and terminates. system,” he said. “Plus there’s a large and no single market segment dominates. T h e The Builder actually is a multi-tasking growing number of people who cannot Empire Builder is everybody’s train, mobility machine that serves dozens of drive or prefer not to drive. Add them gathering and distributing so many vari- markets at once.” together and you find there is a very large eties of travelers between so many origin- Coston, who worked as an Amtrak market for short-distance travel on long- ticket and baggage clerk when he was a distance trains. We need at least one more Distribution of Passengers college student and served on the Amtrak train on each of those routes. at St. Paul, MN Reform Council from April, 2000, to December, 2003, said the Builder’s logisti- Why more service? cal efficiencies are not unique. “Substantial numbers of people already “All the long-distance trains have are boarding the westbound Empire Builder similar demographics and economics,” at Fargo at 3:49 a.m.” Coston said, “and he said. “I used to sell Amtrak tickets there are lots of people boarding the east- and handle baggage at Chicago Union bound at 2:10 a.m. Station, and the customers I served came “Can you imagine what kind of busi- from everywhere and went every- ness Amtrak would be doing at Fargo if where—not just to the end points. T h e another train went through at a decent principle is the same whether you’re hour? The Fargo-Moorhead area has more Several analysts have proposed breaking routes like the Empire talking about the Empire Builder or the than 100,000 people. And every Amtrak Builder into several segments. Southwest Chief or the California overnight train has between 5 and 10 stops The Empire Builder’s usage at St. Paul demonstrates why this Zephyr or the City of New Orleans. T h e it serves at an inconvenient time.” change would be very damaging. reservations computer showed the vast Fully 47% of the passengers who arrive at St. Paul stay on the majority of the riders originated or ter- Rolling-stock shortage limits travel train. A forced transfer would make the product less attractive to minated at intermediate stops that either “Amtrak carried 24 million passen- almost half the current customers, reducing revenues. Operating gers in 2003—up a million over the year costs would simultaneously increase. did not have air service or were very fatiguing to reach by car. ” before, and so far this year we’re 400,000 A better plan would be to protect and grow the existing base market on the existing train and add frequencies on discreet passengers ahead of where we were a year segments, such as Chicago to St. Paul. continued on page 19 w w w . m i d w e s t h s r . o r g PAG E 13 MIDWEST RAIL REPORT Vol. 12, No. 3 08/04 S p e c i a l R e p o r t

Empire Builder, continued from page 13 We would like to thank the following organizations for providing the printing expenses for this issue: ago, which means we’ll add more than a million more passengers this year,” Lang Illinois Association of Railroad Passengers told the Spring Conference of the Midwest High Speed Rail Association in Iowa Association of Railroad Passengers Chicago March 20. Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers “Basically, all our trains are now run- National Association of Railroad Passengers ning full, because we haven’t got enough rolling stock to accommodate all the people Ohio Association of Railroad Passenger who want to ride,” Lang said. “When Wisconsin Association of Railroad Passengers David Gunn became CEO two years ago we had 100 damaged cars waiting for We would also like to thank the following people for providing input and data rebuilding at our repair shops in Beech for this issue: Grove, Ind., and Wilmington, Del. Mr. Gunn has got 30 of them back into service, Scott Bernstien but we still have a long ways to go. President “Sleeping-car space is particularly hard to Center for Neighborhood Technology get,” Lang said. “On Western trains such as the Builder it’s booked months in advance.” ■ Kevin Brubaker High Speed Rail Project Manager Environmental Law and Policy Center

George Chilson President National Association of Railroad Passengers

Fritz Plous Photo: Steven J. Brown Director of Communications New Trains Leasing Decades of federal investment have resulted in the very popular Acela Express, operating between Washington and Boston. The Also, thanks to our regular contributors, who can be found at Midwest High Speed Rail Association is working for similar investment here. midwesthsr.org/about_Donors.htm

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The map on the right is the European decline in railroad infra- U n i o n ’s 2010 high-speed rail plan. The black structure that continues lines represent new, dedicated high-speed t o d a y. This decline makes t r a c k . The grey lines represent existing track fast, reliable, convenient to be upgraded to a standard similar to passenger service impos- Amtrak's Northeast Corridor. The lightest sible in many key travel lines represent lines to be developed to high- c o r r i d o r s . speed standards under the 2020 plan. There are many busy For purposes of comparison, the distance travel corridors where between Seville and Amsterdam is roughly modern trains could out- equal to the distance between Omaha and perform air service—if New Yo r k . only adequate track, sig- nals and stations were in Americans deserve similar choices. place. The federal govern- ment needs to help our states and communities Today European travelers have choices build those modern rail when they travel. Depending upon their per- facilities, just as it helped sonal preferences they can drive a super high- them build Interstate high- w a y, fly, or take a fast, dependable train. A s ways and modern com- fuel prices increase, Europeans will choose the mercial airports. tion program—just like highways, airports, air train more often. The recent growth in commuter rail ser- t r a ffic control and inland waterways. Just like Americans, Europeans love their vice demonstrates that the American anti-train T h a t ’s why this special-edition newsletter cars and love to drive. But they also like the is devoted to challenging long-held beliefs option of having modern rail service when dri- Understanding the overnight trains about the overnight trains. ving is not appropriate. And as fuel prices rise provides a better understanding Understanding the way these sixteen and roads become congested, driving is of how shorter trains function. routes work to build volume—where the becoming less and less appropriate for many experts think no one will ride—provides a bet- types of travel. policies can be reversed. But rather than deal ter understanding of how all passenger rail Americans deserve similar choices. with the real issue—rail infrastructure funding- routes function – short or long. Many regions of the United States, including -elected leaders and other policy makers have And that’s what we need—understand- half a dozen corridors in the Midwest, are engaged in an endless and pointless debate i n g . Every survey ever taken has shown that more densely populated than Europe. about A m t r a k ’s performance as a business. Americans want more trains to ride. To get So why don’t we have good trains here ? Fighting over A m t r a k ’s overnight trains those trains they’ll need a clear explanation of The true difference between Europe and has provided an excellent diversion for folks an issue that our politicians and policymakers the US is not population density or geography, who don’t want to face the hard issues of infra- have chosen to obscure or ignore. T h i s but a series of public policy decisions made structure funding. Pretending Amtrak should newsletter is the Midwest High Speed Rail since the beginning of the last century. P u b l i c be a business is less challenging than making A s s o c i a t i o n ’s effort to pierce the veil of igno- policies in the U.S. have caused a steady it into what it should be—a federal transporta- rance and wipe away the film of obscurity.

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