Next time, Mr. President, take the train.
President Bush spoke yesterday in Jefferson City, MO, having flown there (to Columbia, actually) on Air Force One.
What makes this interesting from our point of view? Nearly as many people take trains as planes in this metro area.
In 2004, Columbia Regional Airport (COU) boarded 20,268 passengers. That same year, Amtrak's Jefferson City station boarded or detrained 40,014 passengers. If you assume that boardings = detrainings, you get about 20,000 passengers boarded. Your conductor scores this a dead heat.
What's more, there are places where Amtrak outboards all the airlines combined. Consider Modesto, CA, where 19,798 passengers boarded at Harry Sham Field (MOD). Amtrak boarded an estimated 36,345 at its Modesto station. And with a 2000 metro population of 447,000, Modesto isn't exactly just a wide place in the road.
Your conductor has always found it a little silly to compare a single carrier, Amtrak, against "the airlines," as some so-called railfans insist on doing. Nevertheless, there really are places where Amtrak competes quite well, thank you very much, with "the airlines." Now you know two of them.
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P.S. It's too bad Air Force One didn't land at Jefferson City Memorial. JEF could use the traffic; it boarded only 154 passengers in 2004, 78 in 2003. (Source: FAA, 6.7MB PDF). Air Force One seats 102 including crew. All by itself, it could have swelled the passenger count by 40%!
What makes this interesting from our point of view? Nearly as many people take trains as planes in this metro area.
In 2004, Columbia Regional Airport (COU) boarded 20,268 passengers. That same year, Amtrak's Jefferson City station boarded or detrained 40,014 passengers. If you assume that boardings = detrainings, you get about 20,000 passengers boarded. Your conductor scores this a dead heat.
What's more, there are places where Amtrak outboards all the airlines combined. Consider Modesto, CA, where 19,798 passengers boarded at Harry Sham Field (MOD). Amtrak boarded an estimated 36,345 at its Modesto station. And with a 2000 metro population of 447,000, Modesto isn't exactly just a wide place in the road.
Your conductor has always found it a little silly to compare a single carrier, Amtrak, against "the airlines," as some so-called railfans insist on doing. Nevertheless, there really are places where Amtrak competes quite well, thank you very much, with "the airlines." Now you know two of them.
- - - -
P.S. It's too bad Air Force One didn't land at Jefferson City Memorial. JEF could use the traffic; it boarded only 154 passengers in 2004, 78 in 2003. (Source: FAA, 6.7MB PDF). Air Force One seats 102 including crew. All by itself, it could have swelled the passenger count by 40%!
posted by conductor at 8:25 AM
2 Comments:
Maybe the runway at JEF is too small for a 747 - it's only 6000x100 vs. 6500x150 at COU
Air Force One was able to land at Tweed New Haven airport (HVN) in April. Tweed's longest runway, 2/20, is 5,600 feet long. It is, however, 150 ft. wide. Maybe width is the deciding factor.
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