[Willie Green]

Interesting Chart!!!!

Although fares for local transit have kept pace with the CPI,
Amtrak revenues have dramaticaly increased while the airlines have decreased!!!

In order to remain profitable, the airlines will HAVE to reduce the number of inefficient "short-hop" flights they offer (less than 500 miles) where passenger rail can provide more cost effective service.

That is another reason why we must upgrade the passenger rail capacity: to accommodate the increase in consumer demand as the airlines start reducing service!!!

[jimtorr]

Contrary to this article, the cost of the routes I fly has doubled in the past ten years.

There is no least chance of increasing rail service on the San Francisco to Seattle Amtrak route, much less the Baltimore to San Francisco route.

[econjack]

I wonder what would happen to costs if airlines didn't have their routes dictated to them. In other words, suppose airlines could drop those airports where daily flights don't make economic sense but they are forced to service even though they are not profitable. True, some cities would lose air service, but what if those cities had better rail service to major hubs? It's like railroads and canals way back in the 1800's. In England, they were complement goods...the rails took commodities from the canal endpoints to market. In other words, canals and rails worked together to get goods to market. In the US, they were substitute goods...they competed for business and the rails put the canals out of business. It's similar for the air-rail markets today. Passenger rail service is almost non-existent for most of us and, probably because it is gov’t run, Amtrak can't compete. Perhaps there is some way to make rails augment, rather than compete with, air travel. Just an idea...

[Haiku Guy]

I can fly wherever I want at great prices... What's not to love?

The nice thing about airlines, as opposed to... oh, I dunno... trains, is that airlines are flexible, and able to change routes and compete with one another on a moment's notice. They can become more and more efficient, as market pressures drive costs ever downward. Free enterprise in action.

One way they have become more efficient is because they are flying full aircraft. I fly a few times a year, and it has been years since I have seen an empty seat in my row or on the rows around me. Twenty years ago, whenever I flew with my wife, we would always get the window and aisle, and the middle seat would inevitably remain unsold, so that would be a freebie. You can't get away with that sort of thing today... The airlines have tailored their routes and prices to the nth degree, and sell every seat.

This is how free market capitalism, red of tooth and claw, serves the consumer. I travel a lot more than I would if prices were 30 cents a passenger mile instead of 10 cents. Air travel is a great value.

[truthandlife]

I think this is a setup article for the airline industry’s nickel and diming everyone and fare increases coming.

[Badabing Badablonde]

Spare me......I travel frequently for my work, and we nickeled and dimed to death to make up the difference. Baggage fees, charges to board early, charges to buy additional miles, fees to redeem miles....any way to make a buck. Its just a matter of time before they put coin machines on the lavatory doors.

[Leisler]

Air is a private, competitive industry, unlike Amtrack’s union, hack contractor, politicians hiring taxpayer money pit.

Average industry price means nothing in private industry( Not that you would know Willie ). What matters are the innovators that push price down, like Southwest, or Jet Blue. The other airlines are the losers, whom will or should be put out of business. ( As in Honda, Toyota in cars, or what Dell did to Compaq in PC’s )

Willie Green, Freerepublic’s resident classical economic fascist.

[ROCKLOBSTER]

The price of jet fuel for 2009 was at a four year low and still 240% higher than the airlines paid in 1990.

Thanks to BP and other foreign developers, we now know there are zillions of barrels of crude right under our feet.

Why can't we have it? (never ask a question where you don't already know the answer)

[Lurker]

Amtrak revenues have dramaticaly increased

And yet they still fail to turn a profit.

while the airlines have decreased!!!

And yet the DO turn a profit. What a miracle!

Here's the lesson Willie: Government entities don't make money, they cost taxpayers BILLIONS.

Private sector businesses do turn a profit or they cease to exist.

Why is that so hard to grasp?

(less than 500 miles) where passenger rail can provide more cost effective service.

As long as they have an endless supply of money taken from hard working taxpayers at the point of a gun.

[longtermmemmory]

that chart is garbage.

passenger rail is dead and should say dead. How much of the cost for airlines is absurd financial regulation?

Rail is just a white elephant for real estate insiders.

[John O]

WOW!! Great news. Now we can delete the AMTRAK federal subsidy and let rail compete on it's own.

Finally some good news from passenger rail.

BTW, Rail will never compete with air for 600 mile flights. Rail is, and will always be, too slow.

If I was going to take that amount of time, I'd just drive. Why subject myself to the riff-raff on mass transit if it buys me nothing? If I don't need the speed of air I use the convenience and increased capacity of my own vehicle.

Not to mention the fact that private auto is far far cheaper for a family than rail or air. (Incremental cost per person for auto is trivial. Perhaps $30 per day for food at most. Incremental cost per person for rail or air is hundreds of dollars. Another full fare ticket per person (plus baggage charges, taxes etc))

Take the money from the amtrak subsidy and put it into the highway system where it can actually do some good.

[Arrowhead1952]

I don’t comment much on your train threads, but one of my coworkers wanted to use Amtrack to go meet his son and daughter in law in AZ. His trip would have taken him through Chicago. We are talking Austin to AZ and FIVE days sitting in a rail car.

[BfloGuy]

This article is nonsense.

The drop in air fares is directly attributable to competition from airlines like Southwest and JetBlue which can make a profit at lower prices. It's the capitalist system at work.

I am surprised that some airlines haven't opted for a higher-price, higher-service business model. It wouldn't work in all markets, but NYC-LAX, for example, could probably support it. Now, some might claim that the legacy airlines (USAirways, Delta, etc.) tried that, but evidently their service wasn't considered superior enough to be worth the higher prices.