This is a comparison of Amtrak ridership and some individual airline boardings for May 1997. The Amtrak ridership for April/May/June 1997 was 5.19 million - I could not obtain the exact May figures for Amtrak so I divided the 5.19 million by 3 to get the average monthly ridership of 1.73 million, which is what I used for May. If anyone can get the exact May figure for Amtrak, I'd appreciate it. However, I don't think it would vary much from the 1.73 million.

I could not obtain all the airlines, some are small, some large, including American and Delta. I was a little surprised that Amtrak carried 40 percent as many passengers as Southwest and 25 percent as many as American and United and 20 percent as many as the number one airline Delta.

AIRLINE..........................................AMTRAK.............Amtrak's percentage of the airline

Air Wisconsin - 151,228................1,730,000......................1,144 percent

ValuJet - 247,787..........................1,730,000......................698 percent

Atlantic Southeast - 336,913..........1,730,000......................513 percent

Frontier Airlines - 549,000.............1,730,000......................315 percent

Alaska Air - 1,010,400..................1,730,000......................171 percent

America West - 1,532,650.............1,730,000......................113 percent

Southwest Airlines - 4,361,121.......1,730,000......................40 percent

American Airlines - 6,862,301........1,730,000......................25 percent

United Airlines - 6,998,000.............1,730,000......................25 percent

Delta Airlines - 8,826,824...............1,730,000......................20 percent

Further information on the airlines - the load factors were as follows (May 1997): Delta (73.16 percent); United (71.2 percent); Frontier (60.8 percent); Atlantic Southeast (52.1 percent); America West (68.9 percent); Air Wisconsin (65.2 percent); ValuJet (52.8 percent); Alaska Air (66.7 percent); American Airlines (69.0 percent); Southwest Airlines (64.3 percent).

According to the Department of Transportation, the 10 largest U.S. airlines flew on time 79.8 percent in April, 1997, down from 80.2 percent on time in April 1996.

The airline reports came directly from the airlines in press releases. Amtrak's third quarter report came in a press release from Amtrak.

Sources: National Transportation Statistics, US Department of Transportation/BTS, Federal Transportation Financial Statistics, Fiscal Years 1977-1994. I computed the percentage increase or decrease in Federal outlays between 1980 and 1994 for each category.

The table uses current dollars for each year (in millions). There is also a similar table using constant 1987 dollars, which I'll leave for you to look up if you want to.

YEAR.........AIR.............HIGHWAY.............TRANSIT.............RAIL

1980............3,762................11,706....................3,307....................2,170

1985............4,947................15,031....................3,427....................1,057

1990............7,305................15,452....................3,832.......................534

1991............8,282................15,860....................3,917.......................779

1992............9,313................16,773....................3,675.......................900

1993...........10,049...............18,081....................3,517.......................814

1994...........10,146...............20,053....................3,770.......................832

Percent change between 1980 and 1994 are as follows:

AIR plus 169%

HIGHWAY plus 71%

TRANSIT plus 14%

RAIL minus 160%

Federal outlays for air was $10.146 billion in 1994 alone. This was 1,119% more than rail received. And Federal outlays for highways was $20.053 billion in 1994, or 2,310% more than rail. You will also note that air and highways received large increases in outlays during this time period while rail had a huge decrease in Federal outlays.

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Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation; National Transportation Statistics; Federal Highway Administration; Air Carrier Traffic Statistics, annual issues, pp. 2,3. Figures are in BTU per passenger mile.

YEAR......DOMESTIC AIR......AUTOMOBILE.....TRANSIT BUS.....AMTRAK

1980...........6,009............................4,491........................2,743....................2,148

1985...........4,918............................4,040........................3,395....................2,089

1990...........4,855............................3,938........................3,722....................2,071

1991...........4,647............................3,312........................3,768....................1,977

1992...........4,515............................3,313........................4,038....................2,023

1993...........4,522............................3,415........................3,946....................1,995

1994...........4,345............................3,062.........................4,023....................NA

1995...........4,290............................3,013.........................NA.......................NA

NOTE: I haven't been able to obtain Amtrak's 1994 or 1995 data on BTU/passenger mile. If anyone has this data, please email me.
 
 

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This table is from a report to Congress by the Congressional Research Service, updated September 3, 1996 by Stephen J. Thompson, Specialist in Transportation. Sources sited were US Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Saving Energy in U.S. Transportation, Report No. OTA-ETI-589, U.S. Government Printing Office, July 1994. U.S. Department of Energy's data was used for the derivation of numbers for all the categories except auto trips over 75 miles (explained below) and each number is bases on the average load factor for that category.

Other sources: National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee prepared for the Office of Highway Information Management, Federal Highway Administration.

CAR TRAVEL OVER 75 MILES: The 2,625 BTU per passenger-mile for autos going over 75 miles used in this chart was derived by using 3,593 BTU per passenger mile at a load factor of 1.6 for all auto trips adjusted by a load factor of 2.19 for trips over 75 miles.

The Office of Technology Assessment's analysis of auto travel, using 1989 numbers, has some interesting data comparing intercity highway travel, city travel, work travel and average passengers per car:

YEAR........TYPE AUTO TRAVEL.....LOAD FACTOR/CAR....BTU/Pass-mile

1989.............Intercity travel...........................1.5 per car.....................4,063

1989.............City travel..................................1.5 per car....................4,510

1989.............Work trips..................................1.1 per car....................6,150

Following is a chart for 1992/93 data only, comparing various modes:

MODE.....................BTU per passenger mile

Intercity Bus.................................953

Autos, trips over 75 miles...........2,625

Amtrak.......................................2,646

Autos, all trips except local.........3,593

Air, domestic...............................4,482

Air, general aviation....................8,582

Here's the chart for years beginning in 1980...in BTU per passenger mile:

YR...CAR....INTERCTY BUS....AIR....GEN AVIA...AMTRAK...RAIL TRANSIT

80.....4,782.........1,169..................5,837.........11,497..........3,176............3,008

85.....4,047.........1,323..................5,679.........11,339..........2,800............3,461

90.....3,739..........944....................4,811.........10,146..........2,609............3,453

91.....3,604..........962....................4,560..........9,556...........2,503............3,710

92.....3,586..........953....................4,482..........8,582...........2,610............3,575

93.....3,593..........NA.....................NA.............NA..............2,646............3,687

Some conclusions is this report to Congress: "As can be seen from the numbers, intercity buses use less than 40% of the energy of Amtrak (measured in BTU per passenger mile). Automobile trips longer than 75 miles (see explanation above) are about as energy efficient as travel by Amtrak, and the average trip length on Amtrak in fiscal year 1995 was 257 miles. Transportation by certified air carriers on domestic routes consumes substantially more BTU than Amtrak (emphasis my own), and general aviation uses more than three times as much energy as Amtrak."

"Federal financial assistance to Amtrak could conserve energy, to the extent that those expenditures result in passengers riding Amtrak rather than flying or taking trips shorter than 75 miles." (Again, emphasis was my own).

I also noted that work trips in a car with 1.1 passengers consumes MUCH more energy than rail transit or Amtrak (about twice as much). So, if you drive to work, carpool or ride mass transit to save energy.
 
 

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Sources: Statistical Abstract of the United States. Domestic air includes general aviation, mostly private business flying; Bus excludes school and urban transit buses; Railroads include Amtrak and rail commuter service.

YEAR........DOMESTIC AIR......PRIVATE AUTO........BUS.....RAILROADS

1980................14.9%........................82.5%........................1.8%.......0.8%

1985................17.7%........................80.1%........................1.5%........0.7%

1990................18.1%........................80.2%........................1.2%........0.7%

1993................17.4%........................80.8%........................1.1%........0.7%
 
 

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Source: Urban Transport Fact Book; US Department of Transportation; Greyhound Lines; Air Transport World.

No............SYSTEM.............................BILLIONS OF PERSON MILES

1............American Airlines...........................69.952

2.............United Airlines...............................67.167

3.............Delta Airlines.................................63.445

4..............US Air..........................................36.588

5..............Northwest Airlines........................33.858

6..............Continental Airlines.......................31.134

7..............Southwest Airlines.........................19.933

8..............TWA.............................................17.547

9...............America West Airlines...................12.155

10.............American Trans Air.........................7.735

11.............Alaska Airlines................................7.581

12.............Greyhound Lines.............................5.985

13..............Amtrak...........................................5.921

14...............Tower Air......................................3.810

15..............Hawaiian Airlines............................2.861

Performing my own calculations from the above table, Amtrak carried 30% of the passengers that Southwest Airlines carried and 8% of those carried by American Airlines.