(The following article by Eric Anderson was posted on the Albany Times-Union website on October 5.)
RENSSELAER — While many travelers will be paying more to take the train to New York City, some will see fares that are considerably less.
Amtrak’s new fares, which took effect Tuesday, include a new peak fare of $60 one-way. Other fares are $45 and $53, depending on demand, both higher than the previous off-peak fare of $43 a day earlier.
But a new bargain fare, intended to boost ticket sales on lightly traveled trains, offers a one-way fare of just $34, a 21 percent drop from the previous $43 off-peak coach fare.
The fare is the lowest on the route between Albany-Rensselaer and New York City since September 1998, said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black.
“To some extent, we’re doing what airlines do: to get revenue the best way we can by managing demand,” he said. “Our plan is to drive both revenue and to gain new ridership.”
Passenger rail advocates were generally pleased with the availability of lower fares.
“While we recognize some fares have been increased, we’re pleased a number of fares have (gone down),” said Bruce Becker, president of the Empire State Passengers Association, a rail advocacy organization. “The reductions are significant.”
“It’s basically applying the laws of supply and demand,” said Ross Capon, executive director of the National Association of Rail Passengers in Washington, D.C. “On certain trains, the $63 fare we’ve seen for Washington to New York is the lowest we’ve seen in quite a while.”
Capon said that while an 8:05 a.m. departure from Washington was $104 one-way, the 7:30 a.m. was $84 and the 6:30 a.m. was just $63. It’s “giving people for whom saving money is important the opportunity to do it,” he said.
Last month, Amtrak began requiring reservations on its previously unreserved trains between the Capital Region and New York City. That move drew criticism from many business commuters who said it’s difficult for them to know ahead of time when a meeting might end and they’d be able to catch a train.
But the reservations have also given Amtrak “the ability to control the number of seats they sell at any given price,” Capon said.
“There would be no way to do a revenue-management system without having reservations,” Becker said.
Amtrak’s Black said the railroad hoped to attract budget travelers with its lowest fares, and that higher gasoline prices might provide added incentive to take the train.