Floridian debuts with delays; offers major coach travel discounts: Analysis

CHICAGO — On Sunday, Nov. 10, the first “official” Floridians departed from Chicago and Miami, ushering in some noteworthy — if not all positive — changes to Amtrak’s intercity rail network east of Chicago. After one day, it remains to be seen whether operational issues can be rectified to keep the reconstituted 1,944-mile service close to on time.

Perhaps the bigger story, however, is the train’s bargain coach pricing made possible by more available seats. If you don’t mind spending two nights in coach, travel between Midwest and Florida destinations just got much cheaper. But the lack of sleeping car capacity means prices for beds remain high and inventory is limited.

Iffy timekeeping

While the first “official” northbound Floridian departed Miami Sunday, equipment from the Silver Star leaving South Florida a day earlier also became the “last” Capitol Limited at Washington. Unfortunately, the Star encountered slow orders and congestion on its normal route, where a rain deluge caused a washout earlier in the week near Denmark, S.C. Thus, the train entered Washington Union Station more than an hour past the scheduled 4:05 p.m. departure. With two ALC42’s replacing the train’s P42 locomotives, the train arrived in Chicago Monday at 11:15 a.m., 2 hours and 15 minutes late.

An Amtrak source tells Trains News Wire that all revised operating protocols wouldn’t be implemented until today. Among the new requirements is a 1,500-mile inspection, which is being done at Savannah, Ga., already scheduled as a 45-minute stop.

Delays cause affected passengers to think twice about booking that journey again, and pose major hardship to travelers boarding or leaving at nocturnal intermediate stops with minimal local transportation. Both trains in this marriage are no strangers to random tardiness. Before the through schedules were established, a connection from the northbound Star to westbound Capitol was not guaranteed. Now it is the same train, although the 3:06 p.m. Star arrival and 4:05 p.m. Capitol departure remain unchanged.

A News Wire analysis of train No. 92 since Nov. 1 reveals that only two of the 10 Washington arrivals were near the scheduled time: 2:52 p.m. on Nov 1 and 3:09 p.m. on Nov. 2. Six trains arrived between 3:59 p.m. and 6:24 p.m., and there were two outliers: 8:14 p.m. on Nov. 2 caused by a trespasser incident near Tampa, and 9:22 p.m. on Nov. 7 as a result of a detour around the South Carolina washout. And yet the previous week, all D.C. arrivals but one occurred between 3:02 p.m. and 3:13 p.m.

On the other hand, there were comparatively few problems with eastbound Capitol entries into Washington. Over the two weeks prior to the first run-through, the train from Chicago was early or within 5 minutes of on time on 10 occasions. Today’s Floridian lost 45 minutes between Pittsburgh and Martinsburg, W.Va., arriving 36 minutes late at 1:41 p.m. It departed at 2:40 p.m, one hour after arrival and taking about 20 minutes longer than the train’s allocated 38-minute D.C. dwell time.

Cheaper through-coach fares

As News Wire observed last summer [see “Amtrak may be planning to combine …,” July 10, 2024], and Amtrak officially announced in September [see “Amtrak combines the Capitol Limited, Silver Star …,” News Wire, Sept. 23, 2024], creating a Chicago-Miami train opens up challenges and opportunities. One potential improvement was replacing the Capitol’s short Superliner coach consist that resulted in frequent sellouts on one of Amtrak’s only two daily east-west links.

By assigning four Amfleet II coaches to the through train’s five equipment sets, the company has nearly doubled available seats on the Capitol’s segment. This has allowed revenue managers to finally test lower long-distance price points to stimulate demand, as suggested in a recent analysis [see “How Amtrak’s long-distance capacity affects …,” News Wire, Oct. 7, 2024].

Beginning with the through service — and only on the Floridian — the Chicago-Orlando, Fla., adult coach fare is generally $107 on most departure dates; to and from Cleveland, it is $89. The price is clearly being held low to entice full-route customers, because Chicago-Washington fares continue to rise as seats are sold. On the Sunday afternoon before the first Floridian’s Windy City departure, the Florida fares held (Chicago-Miami was only$113) but the single-night Chicago-Washington coach fare offered on Amtrak’s website was $222! The lower coach fares apply to all stations along the Floridian’s route — beyond Richmond, Va., that is.

Conductor Adam Stier tells News Wire that 190 coach customers (plus 25 in the two sleepers) boarded that first eastbound Floridian out of Chicago Sunday night, far exceeding the seating capacity of the Superliner coach and coach-baggage car previously assigned to the Capitol. Not including on-off activity at intermediate stops, he says, “The manifest shows 123 off in Washington and 95 passengers on at that point.” Relatively few travelers are booked into the Carolinas and Florida on this trip, but Stier loads those going the furthest in coaches furthest away from the two ALC-42 locomotives up front. A coach attendant loads shorter-distance passengers in the first two cars.

Protecting the ability to grow long-haul revenue is something Amtrak has been doing less in recent years with the advent of airline-style fare algorithms able to do split-second analyses of supply and demand conditions, so price incentives based on destination is a dramatic development. However, the Floridian’s coach fare deals apply only to the train, not the route. Try booking a connection at Washington to the Silver Meteor leaving Chicago next Thursday, Nov. 14, and the coach fare to Orlando as of yesterday was $306 from Chicago and $268 from Cleveland.

Expect some tweaking of this fare strategy to prevent savvy travelers taking advantage of that dreaded airline bugaboo, “hidden city ticketing,” in which a passenger gets off at an earlier stop after purchasing a cheaper fare to a further destination. It also will require a targeted advertising campaign to let prospective travelers know about bargain prices that have the potential to significantly boost patronage.

Sleepers still expensive

As News Wire previously noted in October, the switch from two bilevel Superliners to two Viewliner sleeping cars substantially reduced the number of available roomettes and especially bedrooms. The result has been high fares for roomettes and bedroom sellouts on most dates. However, there is evidence that price points are still being evaluated. On Nov. 14, one of the few days Chicago-Florida bedrooms are available in the coming weeks, prices during the week ending the previous Sunday gyrated between $1,183 and $1,509 for a Chicago-Orlando roomette and downward to $2,034 from $2,520 for any remaining bedrooms.

The ability to command prices like these makes the strongest case for expediting the return to service of more than a half-dozen Viewliner I sleeping cars that management consciously sidelined beginning in 2020 as their four-year brake rebuilds came due.

In any case, freshly prepared dining car meals are also available for purchase by coach passengers served in a Viewliner dining car east of Chicago; this hasn’t occurred since 2018. This valuable upgrade that plays to a train’s strengths is long overdue.

News Wire will continue to monitor and analyze Floridian operations as the winter travel season progresses.