Amtrak's Empire Builder
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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.