Anaheim passengers will be able to drink their Metrolink sorrows away

Nano-brewery and "speakeasy" to open at new Anaheim train station

The depot, scheduled to open Dec. 13 (that’s 12-13-14, for you Lotto folks), will house under its three-story dome a handful of original concepts by intrepid Orange County food entrepreneurs.
Among them is Roland Foss, a former Taco Bell marketing guy who owns Mission Market. His grab-and-go convenience store, which has a location in Fullerton, plans to accept bitcoin. It likely will be the only food tenant open when ARTIC debuts next month.
Others aren’t expected to come aboard until early next year, including organic coffeehouse The Lost Bean, whose flagship cafe is in Tustin. Owner Bodie Rasmussen, who has been reluctant to expand “just anywhere” over the years, said he jumped at the chance to open at ARTIC because he’s a supporter of public transportation, having lived in Europe.
Like others, he also sees the potential: ARTIC is expected to serve about 10,000 commuters a day.
Leonard Chan, who has several restaurants in various developing stages across O.C. and Los Angeles, is opening three eateries and a barbershop at ARTIC. His most notable venues are Iron Press in Costa Mesa and the Anaheim Packing House. At ARTIC, he plans to open R.A.D. – a nano-brewery serving comfort food; Hive Bar, an “approachable” speakeasy focusing on hand-crafted cocktails and rare beers; and SILO, a healthy food and poke bowl concept.
Linh Nguyen, owner of Ritter’s in Santa Ana and Huntington Beach, is bringing his steam kettle cooking concept to ARTIC’s second level, as well as The Oyster Bar.

While it's a bit gratifying to see that there is apparently a good level of demand for the restaurant space in ARTIC (which actually opens December 6th, with the grand opening ceremony on the 13th), there's a real question as to how sustainable it will be since the 10,000 daily commuters estimate is rather overblown and dependent on buses that do not actually exist. Unless they're able to attract a lot of patronage from the surrounding development or from those visiting other nearby attractions, Anaheim's new train station will probably be quite empty by the time 2016 comes around.

That's not to say that it couldn't happen mind you. It could very well be the case that, by word of mouth, Yelp, and other means, the restaurants will attract patrons from Angel's Stadium, the Honda Center, and the City Grove. It could even be that they will choose to take the train for convenience with future trips because of the restaurant and brewery amenities as a pre or post-event meal. I am, however, quite doubtful that that will be the case. Housing, office space, or even a hotel (especially given Disneyland and the Convention Center and the planned streetcar connection) are far more likely to draw in additional commuters and to remain a paying proposition for the station.

Amtrak routes by 2014 cost recovery

In what is now an annual tradition of sorts, here are Amtrak's routes ranked according to their cost recovery and color coded for for discernment between the Northeast Corridor (blue), state supported corridors (green), and the long distance trains (orange). To eliminate the effects of state subsidies (which pushed the Vermonter and Carolinian into profitable territory this year), the state supported corridors use only ticket revenue while the Northeast Corridor and long distance trains use total revenues. This does mean that up to several million dollars in private varnish and food and beverage revenue is lost while their costs remain; keep in mind therefore that the state trains may actually be performing better by a few percentage points.

	Revenue 2014	Expenses 2014	Cost recovery 2014	Profit/loss
Acela	$603,800,000	$295,800,000	204.12%	$308,000,000
Washington-Lynchburg	$12,604,973	$8,300,000	151.87%	$4,304,973
Northeast Regional	$625,600,000	$448,900,000	139.36%	$176,700,000
Washington-Newport News	$22,057,190	$18,700,000	117.95%	$3,357,190
Washington-Norfolk	$7,748,910	$7,900,000	98.09%	($151,090)
Auto Train	$80,900,000	$85,200,000	94.95%	($4,300,000)
Carolinian	$19,136,311	$20,700,000	92.45%	($1,563,689)
Maple Leaf	$24,712,104	$29,700,000	83.21%	($4,987,896)
Empire Service	$47,472,663	$57,600,000	82.42%	($10,127,337)
Washington-Richmond	$9,594,953	$12,200,000	78.65%	($2,605,047)
Keystone Service	$37,804,213	$52,300,000	72.28%	($14,495,787)
Hiawathas	$16,794,044	$24,500,000	68.55%	($7,705,956)
Pennsylvanian	$11,447,786	$16,800,000	68.14%	($5,352,214)
Palmetto	$18,300,000	$28,800,000	63.54%	($10,500,000)
Silver Meteor	$44,300,000	$74,400,000	59.54%	($30,100,000)
Adirondack	$7,538,465	$12,700,000	59.36%	($5,161,535)
Vermonter	$5,531,708	$10,000,000	55.32%	($4,468,292)
Downeaster	$8,638,103	$15,700,000	55.02%	($7,061,897)
Empire Builder	$60,500,000	$113,800,000	53.16%	($53,300,000)
Pacific Surfliner	$65,514,742	$124,300,000	52.71%	($58,785,258)
Lake Shore Limited	$34,500,000	$66,500,000	51.88%	($32,000,000)
Ethan Allen Express	$2,898,957	$5,600,000	51.77%	($2,701,043)
Silver Star	$41,200,000	$81,500,000	50.55%	($40,300,000)
Wolverines	$18,900,614	$38,200,000	49.48%	($19,299,386)
New Haven-Springfield	$12,238,623	$25,400,000	48.18%	($13,161,377)
California Zephyr	$55,800,000	$118,300,000	47.17%	($62,500,000)
Coast Starlight	$47,700,000	$101,300,000	47.09%	($53,600,000)
Capitol Limited	$23,000,000	$48,900,000	47.03%	($25,900,000)
Blue Water	$6,487,869	$13,800,000	47.01%	($7,312,131)
City of New Orleans	$22,300,000	$47,500,000	46.95%	($25,200,000)
Illini	$9,272,724	$19,800,000	46.83%	($10,527,276)
Texas Eagle	$27,400,000	$59,200,000	46.28%	($31,800,000)
Chicago-St. Louis	$16,792,321	$37,100,000	45.26%	($20,307,679)
Southwest Chief	$49,400,000	$111,000,000	44.50%	($61,600,000)
San Joaquins	$38,087,608	$86,300,000	44.13%	($48,212,392)
Crescent	$35,900,000	$82,100,000	43.73%	($46,200,000)
Pere Marquette	$3,101,530	$7,400,000	41.91%	($4,298,470)
Cascades	$28,440,469	$68,000,000	41.82%	($39,559,531)
Piedmont	$3,402,929	$8,200,000	41.50%	($4,797,071)
Capitol Corridor	$27,105,046	$70,000,000	38.72%	($42,894,954)
Cardinal	$8,700,000	$24,100,000	36.10%	($15,400,000)
Illinois Zephyr	$5,521,055	$16,300,000	33.87%	($10,778,945)
Kansas City-St. Louis	$5,341,229	$15,800,000	33.81%	($10,458,771)
Sunset Limited	$14,200,000	$51,200,000	27.73%	($37,000,000)
Heartland Flyer	$1,965,642	$9,200,000	21.37%	($7,234,358)
Hoosier State	$802,581	$6,000,000	13.38%	($5,197,419)

For an alternate view, here is each route ranked according to profit or loss.

	Profit/loss
Acela	$308,000,000
Northeast Regional	$176,700,000
Washington-Lynchburg	$4,304,973
Washington-Newport News	$3,357,190
Washington-Norfolk	($151,090)
Carolinian	($1,563,689)
Washington-Richmond	($2,605,047)
Ethan Allen Express	($2,701,043)
Pere Marquette	($4,298,470)
Auto Train	($4,300,000)
Vermonter	($4,468,292)
Piedmont	($4,797,071)
Maple Leaf	($4,987,896)
Adirondack	($5,161,535)
Hoosier State	($5,197,419)
Pennsylvanian	($5,352,214)
Downeaster	($7,061,897)
Heartland Flyer	($7,234,358)
Blue Water	($7,312,131)
Hiawathas	($7,705,956)
Empire Service	($10,127,337)
Kansas City-St. Louis	($10,458,771)
Palmetto	($10,500,000)
Illini	($10,527,276)
Illinois Zephyr	($10,778,945)
New Haven-Springfield	($13,161,377)
Keystone Service	($14,495,787)
Cardinal	($15,400,000)
Wolverines	($19,299,386)
Chicago-St. Louis	($20,307,679)
City of New Orleans	($25,200,000)
Capitol Limited	($25,900,000)
Silver Meteor	($30,100,000)
Texas Eagle	($31,800,000)
Lake Shore Limited	($32,000,000)
Sunset Limited	($37,000,000)
Cascades	($39,559,531)
Silver Star	($40,300,000)
Capitol Corridor	($42,894,954)
Crescent	($46,200,000)
San Joaquins	($48,212,392)
Empire Builder	($53,300,000)
Coast Starlight	($53,600,000)
Pacific Surfliner	($58,785,258)
Southwest Chief	($61,600,000)
California Zephyr	($62,500,000)

Most routes performed a bit better this year than they did the year previously thanks to Amtrak's cost cutting measures; this was particularly evident on the long distance routes which collectively cut $111.5 million from their costs and OPEBs. The Auto Train is the standout performer, somehow cutting $25.9 million in costs which, in addition to $5.5 million in additional revenue, allowed to to come only $4.3 million away from breakeven.

I've trimmed some figures relating to year over year changes in the interest of presentation, but they remain available in the Excel file (converted from Numbers). As always, the figures come from Amtrak's September Monthly Performance Report.