Imagine Cheaper New York-Philly Amtrak Service
I wrote in this week's Observer about New Yorkers moving to Philadelphia. One of the statistics I dug up that didn't make it into the story was the amount of daily Amtrak commuters between New York's Penn Station and Philly's 30th Street Station. It turns out that annual daily round-trip ridership along the line peaked in 2004 and 2005, and has dropped precipitously ever since.
Amtrak measures its ridership by fiscal years that run from October to October. In fiscal year 2004 (October 2003-October 2004), 375,100 riders total made daily round-trips between the two cities. That was more than in the three previous fiscal years. But, then, in fiscal year 2005, daily ridership peaked at over 377,000.
It's dropped ever since, with fiscal year 2007, claiming an estimated annual total of 220,800 Philadelphia-to-New York daily commuters. (Note: These are not daily averages, but annual totals.)
There's a number of reasons for this, I'm sure, like the rise of cheaper airlines such as JetBlue as well as cut-throat bus fares, plus the introduction of so-called "luxury" bus lines. But my guess is it's because Amtrak raised the fares between Philly and New York significantly in late 2005 and into 2006, just when the drop-off in ridership started.
Here's The New York Times covering the fare increase in September 2005:
For example, the price of a basic, one-way ticket between Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Station in New York will rise to $56 from $53. But the cost of a monthly pass between those cities, which allows unlimited travel on certain trains, will increase almost 60 percent, to $1,008 from $633. Commuters and their advocates expressed shock at the increases, and some said they would have to find a less expensive alternative.
The cheapest Philly-to-New York ticket that you'll find now on Amtrak's Web site is $43 ($86 round-trip). Monthly passes for unlimited rides on some train lines run as high as $1,080 (a daily cost of roughly $36).
An Amtrak spokesman noted correctly that the railroad is not meant to be a commuter rail; it instead connects cities and towns, just like airlines and bus companies. And the fiscal-year amount of non-daily round-trip riders between Philadelphia and New York increased from 2006 to 2007.
Still, you have to wonder: If Amtrak's fares dropped--and if the speed of long-distance rail travel in the U.S. ever caught up to that of Europe or Japan--would New Yorkers, already moving there in a trickle, flood Philadelphia? A commute from a much cheaper home in Philly to a job in New York would suddenly feel like a commute from Long Island or Connecticut.
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Another factor in the decline of Amtrak commuters between Philly & NYC may be that New Jersey Transit monthly ticket holders used to be able to take selected Amtrak rush-hour trains from nearby Trenton. That ended around 2004.
2005 also happens to have been the year that Amtrak terminated its Clocker trains, which ran specifically to serve the Philadelphia-New York market (i.e. they did not continue on to DC or Harrisburg). NJ Transit took over the slots but only from Trenton to New York. Those hundred thousand people didn't just stop commuting -- they're now counted by SEPTA and NJ Transit instead of being in the Amtrak numbers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clocker_(Amtrak)
Note also that the Times article failed to explain WHY the fare increase took place. It just so happens that 2005 was also the year that the federal law limiting Amtrak discounts to 50% took effect. Because the commuter discount had been almost 70%, that necessitated the almost 2x increase to comply with the law. See Amtrak notice from 2006 mentioning the cause of the 2005 increase, http://amtraktrack.blogspot.com/2006/10/amtrak-monthly-fares-going-up-oc...
Another reason for Amtrak's high fares and mediocre service is a series of administrations that have tried to cut or even eliminate subsidies, all the while shoveling more and more dollars into roads and airlines. Washington seems to have convinced itself that the U.S. is somehow disconnected from the economic realities of the rest of the world, where every other passenger railroad is treated like a public service and is supported as such.
While the situation has been much worse under George Bush, Amtrak-bashing has never been limited to just one party. All I can figure is that the smell of oil is just too overwhelming.
I have family in the Philly area and visit there about every 2 months, but I gave up on Amtrak long, long ago. Fares have been rising much higher than the inflation rate for at least 2-3 decades, so now I rent a car, which is about the same price but gives me much more flexibility.
If I were going to Center City Philadelphia, taking the NJ Transit/SEPTA commuter trains, with a change of trains at Trenton, might be attractive, since the fare is, IIRC, around $30-35 round trip. But it makes every single stop, the connection can sometimes be iffy, and even under the best circumstances it's 45 minutes to an hour longer than Amtrak. Plus, my family doesn't live in Center City but rather on the other side of Philly, in the southwestern suburbs, which necessitates another transfer and commuter train ride. The total ride -- subway to Penn Station, the commuter trains, the ride from the commuter train station at the other end -- can often be close to five hours each way, so why not rent a car and make the trip in just over 2 hours?