Measuring the Benefits of Intercity Passenger Rail: A Study

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the average scores for its peer group, other state-supported and other short-distance corridors. In FFY 2009, the Heartland Flyer average overall CSI score and percent very satisfied ranked second among the 26 routes in this category. On-Time Performance One measure of importance to the patronage of current intercity passenger rail service and the development of new markets for passenger rail is the on-time performance of intercity passenger rail routes. Arguably, travel time reliability is likely a major determinant in travelers’ decision to use passenger rail for a trip. Therefore, improving travel time reliability (i.e., consistent on-time performance) would likely increase ridership on a route. Amtrak defines trains as “late” with performance thresholds according to the total endpoint-to-endpoint distance of a route, as follows: • Routes up to 250 miles: Arrival at endpoint more than 10 minutes behind schedule; • Routes between 251 and 350 miles: more than 15 minutes behind schedule; • Routes between 351 and 450 miles: more than 20 minutes behind schedule; • Routes between 451 and 550 miles: more than 25 minutes behind schedule; and • Routes above 551 miles: more than 30 minutes behind schedule. Amtrak reports that for FFY 2009, the on-time performance of the 206-mile Heartland Flyer was 83.3 percent, which means that five out of every six Heartland Flyer trains arrived at the endpoint within 10 minutes of the scheduled time. Figure 3-9 shows the monthly percent on- time for the Heartland Flyer between January 2004 and the end of FFY 2009. 68
Figure 3-9: Heartland Flyer On-Time Performance and Delay Minutes Amtrak also accounts for the causes of all minutes of delay of its trains and attributes them either to its own actions, actions of the host railroad, or other delays. Delays attributed to Amtrak include delays for passengers or equipment maintenance. Delays attributed to the host railroad include delays for slow orders, track or structures maintenance, or interference from freight train traffic. Other delay minutes include weather-related delays or grade crossing accidents. Figure 3-9 also reports total delay minutes for Heartland Flyer trains for each month between January 2004 and September 2009, graphed on the right vertical axis. On-time performance and delay minutes were compiled from Amtrak monthly reports available on Amtrak’s website. Delay minutes for June 2006 were not available. The shapes of the timeseries lines in Figure 3-9 indicate a mirror-image relationship between on-time performance and delay. It is not surprising that these variables would assume such a relationship. During FFY 2009, Heartland Flyer trains were delayed a total of 23,420 minutes, which were attributed to three sources as follows: • Amtrak, 2,368 minutes (10.1 percent); • Host Railroad, 19,160 minutes (81.8 percent); and 69
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1. Report No. SWUTC/10/169116-1 2.
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ABSTRACT In recent years, the polic
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LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 3-1: He
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION In i
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ail service along intercity corrido
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planning faces a variety of challen
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of travel (in the absence of rail s
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participate in the study. Throughou
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such as medical appointments or fun
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Heartland Flyer annually. Induced t
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Heartland Flyer identified in this
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DISCLAIMER The contents of this rep
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION In its Dece
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to Fort Worth intercity corridor wa
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• An overview of intercity passen
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passenger deficit for the year 1969
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In April 2009, the Federal Railroad
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conditions across the United States
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Table 2-2: State-Supported Routes i
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Oklahoma and Texas support service
Page 48 and 49: conducted by the Southeastern Wisco
Page 50 and 51: Discussion of State-Supported Rail
Page 52 and 53: • The 1993 Illinois Passenger Rai
Page 54 and 55: INTERCITY PASSENGER RAIL PLANNING T
Page 56 and 57: Data Needs for Intercity Passenger
Page 58 and 59: supported routes. The following par
Page 60 and 61: • Third, the total non-business r
Page 62 and 63: demand model varies, Horowitz and F
Page 64 and 65: Survey Design Literature Deploying
Page 66 and 67: Table 2-4: Elements Included in On-
Page 68 and 69: question. This pattern is consisten
Page 70 and 71: a particular corridor. For example,
Page 73 and 74: CHAPTER 3: DESCRIPTION OF HEARTLAND
Page 75 and 76: • After passing through Davis, th
Page 77 and 78: minutes early. A later section of t
Page 79 and 80: corridor. Table 3-1 shows a snapsho
Page 81 and 82: enefits resulting from the route’
Page 83 and 84: state of Oklahoma (71). This action
Page 85 and 86: served by the route are Pauls Valle
Page 87 and 88: Figure 3-4: Typical P42DC Locomotiv
Page 89 and 90: during non-peak times when the usua
Page 91 and 92: effect during this research study w
Page 93 and 94: HEARTLAND FLYER SERVICE DATA The fo
Page 95 and 96: Examining the 10-year monthly avera
Page 97: surprisingly, is Oklahoma City-Fort
Page 101 and 102: CHAPTER 4: DATA COLLECTION The main
Page 103 and 104: amenities that could increase rail
Page 105 and 106: pool be increased to 3,000. The IRB
Page 107 and 108: Summary of Data Collection Tables 4
Page 109 and 110: Ineligible Passengers Several group
Page 111 and 112: QUALITY CONTROL After completing th
Page 113 and 114: For the access mode to station ques
Page 115 and 116: One question on the survey asked th
Page 117 and 118: trip). However, researchers determi
Page 119 and 120: eporting how far passengers were fr
Page 121 and 122: CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS This chapt
Page 123 and 124: survey item by the total number of
Page 125 and 126: Comparing the total column in Table
Page 127 and 128: Tables 5-5 and 5-6 display another
Page 129 and 130: Heartland Flyer Market Area Researc
Page 131 and 132: Table 5-9: Passenger Trip Purpose,
Page 133 and 134: PASSENGER CHARACTERISTICS Passenger
Page 135 and 136: is entirely possible that a passeng
Page 137 and 138: In both April and July, the two mos
Page 139 and 140: Table 5-19: Passenger State of Resi
Page 141 and 142: Figure 5-2: Residential Zip Codes o
Page 143 and 144: Gender Table 5-22 reports passenger
Page 145 and 146: Household Income Table 5-26 reports
Page 147 and 148: In FFY 2009, the Heartland Flyer ra
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Table 5-28: Passenger Alternatives
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Urban and Rural Mobility Another co
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passenger was approximately $120 in
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if the service did not exist (appro
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This study measured the mobility im
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questions on the passenger’s boar
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made is related to the similarity b
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valuable insight on the design of f
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REFERENCES 1. National Surface Tran
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35. Corey, Canapary & Galanis Resea
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74. Able Consulting. Tier 1 Environ
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Figure A-3: Purcell Amtrak Station
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Figure A-7: Fort Worth Amtrak Stati
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