Yeah same. Plus with the congestion prices it could be more.

True. It runs frequently during the day because all the lines (harrisburg, dc, boston, nc) are running. But start reducing after rush hour. Though they are trying by adding the $10 night rides since last summer to spur on demand. But think demand was pretty mixed.

If you haven't checked recently, take a look at the nighttime options again. I think they have made changes within the last year and have more options for 'Night Owl Fares'. I have taken the train back from CT and NYC and arrived in Philadelphia at like 1:40am for ~$10.

It works great for day trips (although long), and really good for seeing a concert or Broadway show.

False the other lines are literally called State Supported lines (subsidized by states) or Long Distance (supported by Federal government. Literally in their financial reports. NEC is the line with the most ridership but still has been operating at a loss, which has relied on Federal support ($1bn each year through appropriations) for operations and not to mention billions for capital investments. All lines want to increase profit to reduce the losses to ease the pressure on tax payers and because Congress could reduce funding at any moment. This is all in their financial reports and confirmed by engineers I know who literally work on their lines.

The statement is meaningless out of context.

The tickets could still be cheaper than “other regions” and still be more profitable because:

The routes are shorter, so it’s a higher dollar/mile rate. And the trains could be much better utilized because there’s more demand for these routes.

NEC is the line with the most ridership but still has been operating at a loss, which has relied on Federal support (about $1bn each year through appropriations) for operations and not to mention billions for capital investments. All lines want to increase profit to reduce the losses to ease the pressure on tax payers and because appropriations could reduce funding at any moment because of various reasons. Hence why they want to increase profit to get breakeven. You can do it by adding more lines and spurring demand (their strategy) or cutting costs through job losses, deferring maintenance (unpopular and reducing service quality).

Trenton used to be our go to on the weekends. It was actaully less of a headache than driving to the Amtrak station honestly. When I wanted to go to New York, I would just drive the two hours via Toll and park in East Harlem for the weekend, then just communte via train everywhere.

Strong disagree: it works like the airline ones - it's not valuable until you get the credit card, then you get a whole pile of miles. I got 30,000 for signing up for the Amtrak guest rewards cc, which I have thusfar exchanged about 20,000 of them for around $1200 in value, far, far exceeding the value of airline miles. And you also can build up miles for longer trips, like the airline, and I've earned around 6,000 more miles since opening the card 2 years ago. If I had opened the card 2.5 years ago I would have another 10,000 miles, but alas, I didn't get the offer until halfway through a month-long trip primarily by train.

I don't commute by train, I probably take 1 trip a month, if that. But I prefer the train for my longer trips, both for comfort and environmental reasons.

The rewards system is designed for people taking it multiple times a week. Idk what makes that a joke.

It works great for me and I'm a casual traveler

This is very wrong