Amtrak costs per train-mile per route

After doing a bit of research with my last post and being both intrigued and perplexed by some of the disparities, I thought I'd go through and expand this to the entire Amtrak network and see how it broke down per individual route. The methodology involved is using the October 2008 schedule and assuming that it holds true for the entire year as a simplification while using Amtrak's FY 2009 annual report for cost information. Weekly one directional runs were calculated and it was assumed that the other direction would mirror image it. Total train miles were calculated by multiplying the weekly run by 52. There was no attempt to take note of special days of extra running or not running and it was assumed every single train ran and was not annulled. This was actually a fairly accurate simplification as it lead to a total of 37,943,672 calculated train miles against a reported 37,439,000 train miles. Additionally, the train miles and costs of the Northeast Regional, Washington-Newport News, and New Haven-Springfield were combined together into one accounting.

Northeast Corridor

Train Name	Train Miles	$ per train-mile
Acela Express	3,296,176	$101.81
Northeast Regional	5,394,480	$92.56

Corridor Trains

Train Name	Train Miles	$ per train-mile
Hiawathas	429,312	$79.66
Maple Leaf	396,760	$71.33
Pacific Surfliner	1,632,800	$63.02
Capitol Corridor	1,201,928	$59.65
Blue Water	232,232	$50.81
Wolverine	663,936	$49.25
Pere Marquette	128,128	$49.17
San Joaquins	1,326,416	$47.57
Hoosier State	81,536	$45.38
Cascades	1,086,176	$44.28
Empire Service	1,350,544	$43.98
Chicago-St. Louis	827,008	$43.77
Heartland Flyer	149,968	$43.34
Illinois Zephyr/Carl Sandburg	375,648	$43.13
Saluki/Illini	451,360	$40.99
Pennsylvanian	323,232	$40.83
Adirondack	277,368	$38.58
Keystone	1,642,680	$37.5
Carolinian	512,512	$33.76
Kansas City-St. Louis	412,048	$27.91
Downeaster	422,240	$27.7
Piedmont	125,944	$26.2
Ethan Allen Express	175,448	$25.65
Vermonter	444,808	$17.76

The average Corridor cost per train-mile comes out to $46.68 per mile.

Long Distance

Train Name	Train Miles	$ per train-mile
Auto Train	622,440	$124.19
Coast Starlight	1,002,456	$75.81
Sunset Limited	622,440	$71.81
Silver Meteor	1,011,192	$71.8
Silver Star	1,011,192	$71.6
Crescent	1,002,456	$67.04
Capitol Limited	567,840	$66.39
Lake Shore Limited	843,024	$66.31
Cardinal	357,864	$60.35
Empire Builder	1,897,168	$56.87
Southwest Chief	1,642,368	$56.87
California Zephyr	1,774,864	$53.19
City of New Orleans	674,128	$51.47
Texas Eagle	950,040	$47.89
Palmetto	603,512	$42.92

The average Long Distance cost per train-mile amounts to $63.58 per mile.

The Hiawathas extreme expense per mile can, I believe, be explained by their short duration, only 86 miles per direction. This would overrepresent any fixed costs relative to operating costs. The Maple Leaf, while possessing a much longer run, will have additional costs due to operating as an international train; I would not be surprised if the costs for the Cascades are elevated in later years due to their connections to Vancouver, BC.

I am, however, rather puzzled as to why the California trains are so expensive. If it were just the Capitol Corridors, which invest rather heavily for high on-time performance, I could understand it, but the Surfliners are even more expensive and for no real reason that I can understand. There's nothing exceptional about the service that ought to result in an extra thirty million dollars a year to run it. By the same token, the Vermonter's extremely low cost is also rather puzzling and I do not know how to explain it.

What leaves me truly flabbergasted however is the cost of the Acela and the Northeast Regional. There is absolutely no justification for these services being more than double the price of a Corridor train and more expensive than every single long distance train bar the Auto Train. It becomes even more absurd when considering that the Keystone, which operates entirely on Amtrak-owned trackage, half of which is the NEC, and operates the same electric train consists as the Northeast Regional, yet costs only $37.5 dollars per train-mile to operate.

Try as I might, I can't think of any reason why the Regionals and the Acela would cost so much except for the imputed costs of maintaining the Northeast Corridor and those being attributed to them and apparently solely them rather than any of the other trains which share the corridor. This is, in my opinion, another reason why ownership of the Northeast Corridor ought to be removed from Amtrak and given to an infrastructure company, restoring Amtrak to its original role. This results in a more equitable and open understanding of the costs as well as the possibility of alternative funding rather than charging the various NEC commuter agencies and Amtrak for trackage rights (for instance, a multistate carbon tax or gasoline tax is one possibility). Preferentially I would suggest charging on a ton-mile basis; this has the added benefit of greatly encouraging Amtrak and commuter agencies to invest in, and lobby for, light-weight locomotives amenable to high acceleration.

If the Regional and Acela were to have costs equal to the average of Corridor and Long Distance trains, respectively, as might be the reasonable result of transferring ownership, the resulting savings would pay for 75% of the operating loss on Amtrak's long distance trains or even possibly the entire amount should Amtrak engage in the activities urged by passenger groups for sometime, such as buying more sleepers and converting the Cardinal and Sunset Limited to daily service, with the lower losses that would entail. Losing the NEC may very well be the best way to save Amtrak as a result.