| Train | Average seats per train |
| Acela |
312
|
| Keystone |
335
|
| Northeast Regional |
442
|
| —Richmond/Newport News |
437
|
| —Lynchburg |
506
|
| —Norfolk |
510
|
| —New Haven/Springfield |
242
|
| Capitol Corridor |
314
|
| Carolinian |
331
|
| Cascades |
261
|
| Downeaster |
290
|
| Adirondack |
270
|
| Empire Service |
388
|
| Ethan Allen Express |
387
|
| Maple Leaf |
203
|
| Heartland Flyer |
224
|
| Hiawatha |
406
|
| Hoosier State |
153
|
| Carl Sandburg/Illinois Zephyr |
266
|
| Illini/Saluki |
332
|
| Lincoln Service |
311
|
| Blue Water |
361
|
| Pere Marquette |
221
|
| Wolverine |
396
|
| Kansas City-St. Louis |
178
|
| Pacific Surfliner |
474
|
| Pennsylvanian |
303
|
| Piedmont |
159
|
| San Joaquins |
315
|
| Vermonter |
298
|
| Auto Train |
512
|
| California Zephyr |
294
|
| Capitol Limited |
289
|
| Cardinal |
225
|
| City of New Orleans |
262
|
| Coast Starlight |
356
|
| Crescent |
303
|
| Empire Builder |
352
|
| Lake Shore Limited |
384
|
| Palmetto |
319
|
| Silver Meteor |
357
|
| Silver Star |
307
|
| Southwest Chief |
290
|
| Sunset Limited |
264
|
| Texas Eagle |
259
|
Friday, October 24, 2014
Average number of seats per Amtrak train
For all my complaints and suggestions that particular routes really need an extra car or two (such as the Carolinian), I've never really had a good way of estimating the length of said trains except counting cars on Youtube videos, a task which is, quite frankly, somewhat less than appealing. However, the other day it hit me that since, courtesy of the FRA, we have the number of passenger-miles per train-mile, and from Amtrak's own monthly performance reports we can derive the occupancy of each train route, we can simply divide the passenger-miles per train-miles by the occupancy in order to figure out how long each train is, to an approximate average. It's not exact (the Acela does not have 304 seats for instance), but it should be within the right ballpark figure. If there's anything that jumps out as particularly weird or off, please let me know.
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At one point I made a table showing which trains operate with which type, and how many of each car. The data might be a little out of date, but for the most part, it's close to correct: 3.thelirrtoday.com/.../amtk_car_usage.pdf.
ReplyDeleteThe one thing that makes the numbers slightly weird is the routes where there's different kinds of equipment. For example, NH-Springfield has the standard 8-car Northeast Regional sets for the through service, but the shuttles are only 2 cars. Likewise, the Empire Service has the 4-car NYP-ALB services with no cafe, and the 5-car services to Niagara Falls with a cafe. Looking at those numbers some more, the Ethan Allen also seems pretty high, as that's typically only 4 coaches and a cafe/business class car, unless that's changed significantly since I last had a chance to ride it.
ReplyDeleteThe Maple Leaf looks off. This is probably an artifact of the weird accounting used on that line (I can think of at least two possible causes).
ReplyDeleteIs there a 2017 version of this based on the United Kingdom?
ReplyDeleteI need one...
ReplyDelete