Amtrak: Our Discount Bus-Level Fares Have Nothing To Do With Discount Buses

This pro-train ad is not meant to imply competition with other modes of long-distance travel.

(New York, NY - Jim O'Grady, WNYC) Amtrak is in the midst of a three-day sale for northeast corridor travel. No big deal, according to Amtrak spokesman Cliff Coles, who said the railroad has been holding such sales for a year now. But what caught our eye were the Chinatown Bus-like prices: $29 for Washington, D.C., or Baltimore to New York; $19 for Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia . The fares are valid for travel from May 10 to May 26.

That raises the obvious question of whether Amtrak is responding to competitive pressure from inter-city buses, which a DePaul University study says grew by six percent nationwide in 2010. Perhaps now is the time for Amtrak to make a savvy push to snag customers rattled by a string of deadly crashes that raise safety concerns about curbside buses.

Officially, none of that has anything to do with the low fare offer. "I don’t know that there’s anyone we’re competing against," said Coles. He added that Amtrak ridership nationwide in the last six months was up by four percent--as in, one-third less than the growth of inter-city buses. Coles did not have numbers for the northeast corridor.

Even more worrying for Amtrak, you'd think, is the emergence in the past two years of Bolt Bus and Megabus, leading discount carriers that offer cushy seats and Wi-Fi, and saw their departures expand in the last year by nearly 24 percent, including frequent departures from Washington, D.C.'s Amtrak hub at Union Station.

"I don’t think there’s a direct correlation to it," Coles insisted. "The buses have their clients and we have ours."

OK, will Amtrak at least admit it has long competed in the northeast corridor against planes and cars? Consider, for example, all those Amtrak ads that proclaim the train's superiority to those other two modes of travel. "Here, every seat is a window seat," says an ad that Amtrak puts in airports. "Traffic what traffic?," says another (see above) that shows an unobstructed train track--as opposed to, say, a highway choked with cars and buses.

"Everybody thinks about competitors that travel the same corridor as you do," Coles conceded. He even said, "we price competitively with the airline industry," before boasting that "in the air-to-rail market share, we now own majority of that share." But then he fell back on the railroad's party line: "If you’re asking me if we compete directly with airlines or buses, I’d have to give you the official answer of 'no.'”

Why not admit that inter-city buses covering the same ground as trains at what is normally a fraction of Amtrak's prices is a competitor? Then the railroad could claim a superior ride, as it has been doing for years in comparison to cars and planes.

Coles is capable of making the case: "Amtrak is the hassle-free price of travel. We have wi-fi. You can get up and walk around while traveling. You're not confined to your seat. We have conference tables for the business traveler, which are popular."

Of course, Bolt Bus and Megabus have wi-fi, too. But then Coles goes for the jugular: "The price of gas keeps going up." Presumably, that means the price of a ticket on an inter-city bus will rise. Perhaps. But that also creates an incentive for people who would normally drive long-distance to leave the car at home and take either the plane, the train or the bus. Just don't call that competition.

Go here for the Transportation Nation story on how Chinatown buses are on the rise in California as that state waits for high-speed rail.