29 September 2009  Denver-Seattle Amtrak Route Would Be
Expensive  A study looking at the possibility of reinstating a
Denver to Seattle Amtrak route shows that it would cost $478
million to set up, carry 111,000 passengers a year, and produce
$13.1 million revenue, at $46.2 million of direct operating
costs a year (a net operating loss of $33.1 million).  The
annual net operating loss per passenger per trip would be
$298.19, despite the $118 per passenger per trip ticket charge.
The operating cost is $416.19 per passenger trip. This is
ignoring any allowance for the infrastructure costs -- even
before depreciating any of the investment, a 3% interest rate on
the money investment would be $14.3 million, $129.19 per
passenger per trip, for a total cost of $545.38 per passenger
per trip with service that would be much slower and less likely
to be on time than commercial airplane service. It would be
faster and not a lot more expensive, to simply subsidize
commercial airplane tickets on these trips. An investmen