Time for a recap: how do profitable passenger railways work?https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/841677955562590208 …
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Haunted Forrest 🌲 Retweeted Haunted Forrest 🌲
Time for a recap: how do profitable passenger railways work?https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/841677955562590208 …
Haunted Forrest 🌲 added,
Haunted Forrest 🌲 Retweeted Haunted Forrest 🌲
For one thing, they actually prioritize making money, since profitability means they can stick around reliably, year after year, instead of begging for unreliable funding from politicians:https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/841680140069396480 …
Haunted Forrest 🌲 added,
Haunted Forrest 🌲 Retweeted Haunted Forrest 🌲
Diversification is a strategy to help accomplish this--but that's not a free pass to run the transport side of your company at a loss! Odakyu only gets gets 32% of its revenue from transport, but 56% of its income from there:https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/841678653096366080 …
Haunted Forrest 🌲 added,
Making a profit also means focusing on the *entire* market, with special attention to occasional travelers--regular commuters tend to buy passes, and so despite making up >50% of passengers, they contribute <50% of revenue:pic.twitter.com/OU5vX91vRN
Haunted Forrest 🌲 Retweeted Haunted Forrest 🌲
Where diversification is concerned, priority is on businesses that cultivate transit use and boost ridership: condos, houses, leased space at and around stations, hotels, restaurants, spas, daycares, supermarkets, department stores...https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/841687484564176898 …
Haunted Forrest 🌲 added,
In the USA, we hear a lot about "transit dependent" riders as the main priority--but they're only a subset of the potential ridership, and can't, by themselves, ensure a profit. Put profitability first, and you'll have ample resources to help them: children, tourists, the elderlypic.twitter.com/YVAQmJe4k1
Haunted Forrest 🌲 Retweeted Haunted Forrest 🌲
The gardening metaphor:https://twitter.com/380kmh/status/841688949370290177 …
Haunted Forrest 🌲 added,
If we look at another profitable suburban railway, we see again that while the hotel department brings in the most *revenue,* it is the transport department that brings in the most *income* after expenses, interest, taxes, depreciation and amortizationpic.twitter.com/uoeT6Kwx4s
Think about that. We know, in America, that hotels, real estate, etc, are all financially viable and profitable businesses. Yet Japan shows us that you can get higher margins from transit--something we think is impossible!
I wonder if this is a chicken or the egg situation: companies need permissive enough land-use regimes for this model to work, but cities won't change the status quo (and still might not anyway unless high quality transit is already up and running?
Maybe--but I'm skeptical to say this is entirely due to land-use practices: https://thredbo-conference-series.org/downloads/thredbo7_papers/thredbo7-workshopC-Shoji-Killeen.pdf …
Oh I know it's not entirely an land-use issue. To your first point, you're never gonna achieve profitability if don't prioritize it. Not only is that not a priority in the US, it's not even really a consideration!
exactly--people just take for granted it's impossible, which turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy
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