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Getting Ready For Gold’s Golden Era

Getting Ready For Gold’s Golden Era

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

Worried about gold sentiment? Don’t be.

The mainstream view of gold right now is an open yawn, and sentiment indicators for this precious metal…

Published

3 years ago

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Getting Ready For Gold's Golden Era

Authored by Matthew Piepenburg via GoldSwitzerland.com,

Worried about gold sentiment? Don’t be.

The mainstream view of gold right now is an open yawn, and sentiment indicators for this precious metal are now at 3-year lows despite the gold highs of last August.

Is this cause for genuine concern?

Not at all.

In fact, quite the opposite.

Most investors are totally wrong about gold, and below we show rather than argue why they are missing the forest for the trees.

Unlike trend chasers, speculating gamblers and gold bears, sophisticated precious metal professionals and historically (as well as mathematically) conscious investors are not only calm right now, they are biding their time for what is about to become gold’s perfect backdrop and, pardon the pun, golden era.

Understanding the Current Gold Price

As for the current doldrums in the gold scene, explaining the same is neither difficult nor a surprise for those who understand history, debt, rates, inflation and Fed-speak, all highly correlated themes we have addressed separately and carefully in prior reports.

“Rising Rates”

For now, the simplest explanation (beyond just the common price manipulation and short-covering) for the current gold yawn comes down to this: Rates are rising and gold typically underperforms in environments where interest rates outpace inflation rates.

Looking, for example, at rates measured by the yield on the U.S. 10-Year Treasury, they have climbed dramatically from the .4% range to well above the 1.5% range in just under a year.

Again, hardly a tailwind for gold.

But here’s the good (yet painfully ignored) news: Rates won’t be rising much higher and inflation is on its way—big time.

Of course, many will say this is just the wishful (and biased) thinking of two Swiss-based precious metal executives.

That’s fair.

But neither Egon nor I have ever been one to use hope or wishful thinking to guide our views (or advice) on money or our convictions on wealth enhancement and, most importantly, wealth preservation.

Instead, our thinking, which is always blunt, long-term and respectful of unemotional math and the cycles of history (and historically bad policy making) is oh-so confident these days.

Why Rates Will Be Suppressed

So, let’s start with rates and why they can’t get much higher (near-term) and hence pose a long-term threat to gold’s much higher price rise down the road.

Using the U.S. Fed as the perfect proxy for delusional as well as desperate central bankers around the world, we can do some quick math to see a very clear path ahead for gold.

As the Biden administration adds another $1.9T of “stimulus” debt to an already historically toxic debt pile, the U.S. will be sitting upon over $30T in government debt before Q1 of this year.

With its economy on its knees and tax revenues dwindling, this debt, and hence U.S. deficits, will only get higher, much higher by year end.

Now, let’s compare this current reality to the pre-pandemic math of 2019 when the over-stimulated (i.e. artificial) economy was running hot.

It’s Simple Math

During that time, the U.S. was spending $4T per year and taking in $3T in taxpayer revenue. The net result was around $1T in annual deficits.

Again: This deficit was in a “strong” environment wherein interest expense on U.S. debt for 2019 was around $400B—roughly 10% of total spending.

But if we fast forward (calculator in hand) to 2021, the picture (and the math) turns very dark, very quick

At $30T of total debt and counting, if rates were allowed to rise much higher to anywhere near the historically normal range of 5%, that would mean $1.5T in annual interest expense for Uncle Sam, which would equate to 50% of national revenues rather than 10%.

Such a scenario of rising rates would mathematically make the U.S. insolvent.

By the way, such a rising rate scenario would be equally true in Asia, the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia etc.

In simple terms then, rates will not go much higher for the blunt reason that countries (and hence central bankers) can’t afford them to go much higher.

As a result, central banks have no choice but to cap and repress rates for as long as they can until the whole system implodes and rates, yields and inflation skyrocket.

For now, however, repressed rates are inevitable: It’s a simple matter of natural math and artificial survival.

Inflation Expectations

As for inflation, that too is as plain to see coming as a cavity is to a dentist.

Right now, rates are going up because investors and markets anticipate that inflation is going up, which is true, but the Realpolitik most gold-bears are forgetting is that rates won’t go too high for the simple reason, again, that the Fed can’t afford or allow them to.

Let me repeat: In order to pay the bills, the Fed MUST suppress rates going forward (especially on the 10Y Treasury, and possibly the 30Y) while simultaneously pursuing a deliberate policy of inflation and currency debasement to “inflate away” some of Uncle Sam’s debt obligations.

This setup, as explained elsewhere, is in fact a perfect scenario for gold, namely 1) inflation running hot (despite the CPI lie) and 2) artificially repressed yields and rates kept low.

The net result, of course, is a world of negative real rates, which is the most bullish backdrop for gold, one which is completely ignored by the markets and 99% of most investors right now.

The Fed’s Linguistic Struggle with Transparency

Last week, Powell announced that he expects inflation to pick up, though he did not expect it “to be a persistent long-term force.”

That’s rich…Much like Bernanke promising the post-08 money printing would end by 2010…

Folks, the Fed will and can never admit that their text book plan is to create as much inflation as possible to solve Uncle Sam’s debt problem.

But that’s the reality. Every sophisticated policy watcher knows this.

Nor will you ever see or hear the Fed go the extra step and publicly announce that they will do their best to create more inflation while simultaneously seek to dishonestly mis-report inflation levels on that openly bogus scale known as the CPI.

Like every desperate central bank in the world today, the Fed’s text book debt solution is to allow inflation to run much higher than nominal rates so that they can pay back their fixed debt holders with dollars that are worth ever-less in the future.

But again: That will never be admitted publicly by central bankers, for do so would be to confess that their currency is on death row.

Such bi-polar dysfunction of double-speak from the Fed is nothing new.

The Fed’s public messaging and its real agenda are entirely opposed, and entirely the norm for central bankers caught in a debt trap of their own design.

Powell, by the way, also said that money supply has no economic impact on inflation, despite the fact that rising money supply is the very definition of inflation.

But as we’ve warned so many times: Don’t trust the experts…

Other Temporary Gold Headwinds

In addition to the temporary but real headwind-fear of rising rates, there are other forces at play taking flows out of gold and into other dangerous yet real directions.

Wild Speculation in Risk Assets

Toward this end, one key culprit is the delusional, yet for now quite profitable, degree of rising and wild speculation in risk assets like tech stocks and cryptos.

Such speculative euphoria, which, by the way, always ends in disaster and always peaks before it tanks, is always equally bad for gold, which is a safe-haven rather than speculative asset. That’s why I and other informed contrarians favor it.

Needless to say, when uninformed retail investors can make 200% on GameStop or dream about Tesla and other balance-sheet-challenged stocks with their fingers on the trigger of an openly discredited Robinhood app, gold will look and perform quite “boring” during such times of unstoppable fantasy.

In short, speculative fever, along with the perception of rising rates and a rising dollar, takes money out of gold. 

But rising rates and a rising dollar are just flash headlines not long-term realities, for all the reasons discussed above.

But the farsighted smart money doesn’t invest, or preserve wealth, based upon headlines or fantasy; instead, they look to hard math.

Keep the Bubble Alive—Repress Rates

Furthermore, the Fed also knows that in addition to making sovereign debt unpayable, rising rates crush its precious stock bubble, just about the only thing working in the U.S.

When the discount rate is 0%, the bubble stays alive, but if the Fed were to allow that rate to rise to 4%, then every company on the U.S. stock exchanges would have to run that 4% rate through their discounted cash flow and valuation models.

The moment they did so, companies now trading at 40 to 50 times sales would tank in valuation.

Markets would implode.

Do you see now why the Fed will have to cap rates? And remember: Repressed rates and rising inflation will be music to gold’s ears.

More Currency Debasement

And as all sophisticated gold investors understood long ago, the continued central bank intervention (i.e. money printing) necessary to keep rates low means one thing: More currency creation and hence more currency destruction.

Gold, of course, is the ultimate dollar and inflation hedge, but unlike most other commodities and metals (like copper etc.), it has the added attribute of not being economic sensitive.

That is, gold doesn’t require a booming economy to rise in price.

Instead, gold serves as a safe haven hedge against tanking currencies and rising inflation, which is precisely where this broke and broken world is now clearly (rather than theoretically) heading.

Vaccine Miracle Ahead?

Of course, we can also expect some new headline “miracle” and speculative tailwind once vaccines allow pent-up demand to send the pundits and markets promising a new post-Covid Nirvana, which could send gold lower for a brief window.

But such “euphoria” will be short-lived for the simple reason (and fact) that the forever-growing debt time bomb ticking beneath such euphoria will blow such illusions to shreds.

The debt facts and numbers facing the central bankers and broken economies are now incontrovertible.

Again: The easiest and most simple way out of this debt morass is inflation—namely, policy makers deliberating inflating their way out of debt.

Such policies point in only one direction: The purchasing power of global currencies will tank as gold’s power and role skyrockets in the years ahead.

Measuring True Rather than Speculative Wealth

Despite the current confluence of factors (“rising” rates, dollars, wild speculation and post-Covid “normalcy”) pulling money out of gold, the long game toward which history is marching boils down to this: More inflation, more money printing and more currency devaluation is ahead of us.

This means those who measure their wealth in dollars, Euro’s, Sterling, Yen etc. will be measuring shadows rather than substance.

As for the sane measuring and preserving of wealth, gold is the number-one asset to which informed and prepared investors can turn.

For now, this key asset is undervalued and provides a massive opportunity not only as a catch-up trade poised for inevitably much higher valuations, but far, far more importantly, gold will triumph in its critical role of preserving capital in a debt-sick world marked by dangerous speculation and openly dying currencies.

Tyler Durden Thu, 03/18/2021 - 06:30

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International

Red Candle In The Wind

Red Candle In The Wind

By Benjamin PIcton of Rabobank

February non-farm payrolls superficially exceeded market expectations on Friday by…

Published

3 hours ago

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March 11, 2024

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Red Candle In The Wind

By Benjamin PIcton of Rabobank

February non-farm payrolls superficially exceeded market expectations on Friday by printing at 275,000 against a consensus call of 200,000. We say superficially, because the downward revisions to prior months totalled 167,000 for December and January, taking the total change in employed persons well below the implied forecast, and helping the unemployment rate to pop two-ticks to 3.9%. The U6 underemployment rate also rose from 7.2% to 7.3%, while average hourly earnings growth fell to 0.2% m-o-m and average weekly hours worked languished at 34.3, equalling pre-pandemic lows.

Undeterred by the devil in the detail, the algos sprang into action once exchanges opened. Market darling NVIDIA hit a new intraday high of $974 before (presumably) the humans took over and sold the stock down more than 10% to close at $875.28. If our suspicions are correct that it was the AIs buying before the humans started selling (no doubt triggering trailing stops on the way down), the irony is not lost on us.

The 1-day chart for NVIDIA now makes for interesting viewing, because the red candle posted on Friday presents quite a strong bearish engulfing signal. Volume traded on the day was almost double the 15-day simple moving average, and similar price action is observable on the 1-day charts for both Intel and AMD. Regular readers will be aware that we have expressed incredulity in the past about the durability the AI thematic melt-up, so it will be interesting to see whether Friday’s sell off is just a profit-taking blip, or a genuine trend reversal.

AI equities aside, this week ought to be important for markets because the BTFP program expires today. That means that the Fed will no longer be loaning cash to the banking system in exchange for collateral pledged at-par. The KBW Regional Banking index has so far taken this in its stride and is trading 30% above the lows established during the mini banking crisis of this time last year, but the Fed’s liquidity facility was effectively an exercise in can-kicking that makes regional banks a sector of the market worth paying attention to in the weeks ahead. Even here in Sydney, regulators are warning of external risks posed to the banking sector from scheduled refinancing of commercial real estate loans following sharp falls in valuations.

Markets are sending signals in other sectors, too. Gold closed at a new record-high of $2178/oz on Friday after trading above $2200/oz briefly. Gold has been going ballistic since the Friday before last, posting gains even on days where 2-year Treasury yields have risen. Gold bugs are buying as real yields fall from the October highs and inflation breakevens creep higher. This is particularly interesting as gold ETFs have been recording net outflows; suggesting that price gains aren’t being driven by a retail pile-in. Are gold buyers now betting on a stagflationary outcome where the Fed cuts without inflation being anchored at the 2% target? The price action around the US CPI release tomorrow ought to be illuminating.

Leaving the day-to-day movements to one side, we are also seeing further signs of structural change at the macro level. The UK budget last week included a provision for the creation of a British ISA. That is, an Individual Savings Account that provides tax breaks to savers who invest their money in the stock of British companies. This follows moves last year to encourage pension funds to head up the risk curve by allocating 5% of their capital to unlisted investments.

As a Hail Mary option for a government cruising toward an electoral drubbing it’s a curious choice, but it’s worth highlighting as cash-strapped governments increasingly see private savings pools as a funding solution for their spending priorities.

Of course, the UK is not alone in making creeping moves towards financial repression. In contrast to announcements today of increased trade liberalisation, Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has in the recent past flagged his interest in tapping private pension savings to fund state spending priorities, including defence, public housing and renewable energy projects. Both the UK and Australia appear intent on finding ways to open up the lungs of their economies, but government wants more say in directing private capital flows for state goals.

So, how far is the blurring of the lines between free markets and state planning likely to go? Given the immense and varied budgetary (and security) pressures that governments are facing, could we see a re-up of WWII-era Victory bonds, where private investors are encouraged to do their patriotic duty by directly financing government at negative real rates?

That would really light a fire under the gold market.

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 19:00

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Government

Trump “Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes”, RFK Jr. Says

Trump "Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President…

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March 11, 2024

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Trump "Clearly Hasn't Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Joe Biden claimed that COVID vaccines are now helping cancer patients during his State of the Union address on March 7, but it was a response on Truth Social from former President Donald Trump that drew the ire of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a voter rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. (Mitch Ranger for The Epoch Times)

During the address, President Biden said: “The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer, turning setback into comeback. That’s what America does.”

President Trump wrote: “The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The VACCINES that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer—turning setback into comeback. YOU’RE WELCOME JOE. NINE-MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU.”

An outspoken critic of President Trump’s COVID response, and the Operation Warp Speed program that escalated the availability of COVID vaccines, Mr. Kennedy said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Donald Trump clearly hasn’t learned from his COVID-era mistakes.”

“He fails to recognize how ineffective his warp speed vaccine is as the ninth shot is being recommended to seniors. Even more troubling is the documented harm being caused by the shot to so many innocent children and adults who are suffering myocarditis, pericarditis, and brain inflammation,” Mr. Kennedy remarked.

“This has been confirmed by a CDC-funded study of 99 million people. Instead of bragging about its speedy approval, we should be honestly and transparently debating the abundant evidence that this vaccine may have caused more harm than good.

“I look forward to debating both Trump and Biden on Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas.”

Mr. Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would challenge President Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination before declaring his run as an independent last October, claiming that the Democrat National Committee was “rigging the primary.”

Since the early stages of his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has generated more support than pundits expected from conservatives, moderates, and independents resulting in speculation that he could take votes away from President Trump.

Many Republicans continue to seek a reckoning over the government-imposed pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

President Trump’s defense of Operation Warp Speed, the program he rolled out in May 2020 to spur the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines amid the pandemic, remains a sticking point for some of his supporters.

Vice President Mike Pence (L) and President Donald Trump deliver an update on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Nov. 13, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Operation Warp Speed featured a partnership between the government, the military, and the private sector, with the government paying for millions of vaccine doses to be produced.

President Trump released a statement in March 2021 saying: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”

President Trump said about the COVID-19 vaccine in an interview on Fox News in March 2021: “It works incredibly well. Ninety-five percent, maybe even more than that. I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.

“But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also. But it’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”

On many occasions, President Trump has said that he is not in favor of vaccine mandates.

An environmental attorney, Mr. Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that aims to end childhood health epidemics by promoting vaccine safeguards, among other initiatives.

Last year, Mr. Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan that ivermectin was suppressed by the FDA so that the COVID-19 vaccines could be granted emergency use authorization.

He has criticized Big Pharma, vaccine safety, and government mandates for years.

Since launching his presidential campaign, Mr. Kennedy has made his stances on the COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general, a frequent talking point.

“I would argue that the science is very clear right now that they [vaccines] caused a lot more problems than they averted,” Mr. Kennedy said on Piers Morgan Uncensored last April.

“And if you look at the countries that did not vaccinate, they had the lowest death rates, they had the lowest COVID and infection rates.”

Additional data show a “direct correlation” between excess deaths and high vaccination rates in developed countries, he said.

President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have similar views on topics like protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

COVID-19 is the topic where Mr. Kennedy and President Trump seem to differ the most.

Former President Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” when he took office in 2017, but he was “intimidated by bureaucrats” at federal agencies and did not accomplish that objective, Mr. Kennedy said on Feb. 5.

Speaking at a voter rally in Tucson, where he collected signatures to get on the Arizona ballot, the independent presidential candidate said President Trump was “earnest” when he vowed to “drain the swamp,” but it was “business as usual” during his term.

John Bolton, who President Trump appointed as a national security adviser, is “the template for a swamp creature,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Scott Gottlieb, who President Trump named to run the FDA, “was Pfizer’s business partner” and eventually returned to Pfizer, Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy said that President Trump had more lobbyists running federal agencies than any president in U.S. history.

“You can’t reform them when you’ve got the swamp creatures running them, and I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do something different,” Mr. Kennedy said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump “did not ask the questions that he should have,” he believes.

President Trump “knew that lockdowns were wrong” and then “agreed to lockdowns,” Mr. Kennedy said.

He also “knew that hydroxychloroquine worked, he said it,” Mr. Kennedy explained, adding that he was eventually “rolled over” by Dr. Anthony Fauci and his advisers.

President Donald Trump greets the crowd before he leaves at the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in Washington on Dec. 8, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

MaryJo Perry, a longtime advocate for vaccine choice and a Trump supporter, thinks votes will be at a premium come Election Day, particularly because the independent and third-party field is becoming more competitive.

Ms. Perry, president of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights, believes advocates for medical freedom could determine who is ultimately president.

She believes that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling votes from Trump” because of the former president’s stance on the vaccines.

“People care about medical freedom. It’s an important issue here in Mississippi, and across the country,” Ms. Perry told The Epoch Times.

“Trump should admit he was wrong about Operation Warp Speed and that COVID vaccines have been dangerous. That would make a difference among people he has offended.”

President Trump won’t lose enough votes to Mr. Kennedy about Operation Warp Speed and COVID vaccines to have a significant impact on the election, Ohio Republican strategist Wes Farno told The Epoch Times.

President Trump won in Ohio by eight percentage points in both 2016 and 2020. The Ohio Republican Party endorsed President Trump for the nomination in 2024.

“The positives of a Trump presidency far outweigh the negatives,” Mr. Farno said. “People are more concerned about their wallet and the economy.

“They are asking themselves if they were better off during President Trump’s term compared to since President Biden took office. The answer to that question is obvious because many Americans are struggling to afford groceries, gas, mortgages, and rent payments.

“America needs President Trump.”

Multiple national polls back Mr. Farno’s view.

As of March 6, the RealClearPolitics average of polls indicates that President Trump has 41.8 percent support in a five-way race that includes President Biden (38.4 percent), Mr. Kennedy (12.7 percent), independent Cornel West (2.6 percent), and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (1.7 percent).

A Pew Research Center study conducted among 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 showed that Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (42 percent) are more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (15 percent) to say they have received an updated COVID vaccine.

The poll also reported that just 28 percent of adults say they have received the updated COVID inoculation.

The peer-reviewed multinational study of more than 99 million vaccinated people that Mr. Kennedy referenced in his X post on March 7 was published in the Vaccine journal on Feb. 12.

It aimed to evaluate the risk of 13 adverse events of special interest (AESI) following COVID-19 vaccination. The AESIs spanned three categories—neurological, hematologic (blood), and cardiovascular.

The study reviewed data collected from more than 99 million vaccinated people from eight nations—Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, and Scotland—looking at risks up to 42 days after getting the shots.

Three vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines as well as AstraZeneca’s viral vector jab—were examined in the study.

Researchers found higher-than-expected cases that they deemed met the threshold to be potential safety signals for multiple AESIs, including for Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), myocarditis, and pericarditis.

A safety signal refers to information that could suggest a potential risk or harm that may be associated with a medical product.

The study identified higher incidences of neurological, cardiovascular, and blood disorder complications than what the researchers expected.

President Trump’s role in Operation Warp Speed, and his continued praise of the COVID vaccine, remains a concern for some voters, including those who still support him.

Krista Cobb is a 40-year-old mother in western Ohio. She voted for President Trump in 2020 and said she would cast her vote for him this November, but she was stunned when she saw his response to President Biden about the COVID-19 vaccine during the State of the Union address.

“I love President Trump and support his policies, but at this point, he has to know they [advisers and health officials] lied about the shot,” Ms. Cobb told The Epoch Times.

“If he continues to promote it, especially after all of the hearings they’ve had about it in Congress, the side effects, and cover-ups on Capitol Hill, at what point does he become the same as the people who have lied?” Ms. Cobb added.

“I think he should distance himself from talk about Operation Warp Speed and even admit that he was wrong—that the vaccines have not had the impact he was told they would have. If he did that, people would respect him even more.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 17:00

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There will soon be one million seats on this popular Amtrak route

“More people are taking the train than ever before,” says Amtrak’s Executive Vice President.

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March 11, 2024

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While the size of the United States makes it hard for it to compete with the inter-city train access available in places like Japan and many European countries, Amtrak trains are a very popular transportation option in certain pockets of the country — so much so that the country’s national railway company is expanding its Northeast Corridor by more than one million seats.

Related: This is what it's like to take a 19-hour train from New York to Chicago

Running from Boston all the way south to Washington, D.C., the route is one of the most popular as it passes through the most densely populated part of the country and serves as a commuter train for those who need to go between East Coast cities such as New York and Philadelphia for business.

Veronika Bondarenko captured this photo of New York’s Moynihan Train Hall. 

Veronika Bondarenko

Amtrak launches new routes, promises travelers ‘additional travel options’

Earlier this month, Amtrak announced that it was adding four additional Northeastern routes to its schedule — two more routes between New York’s Penn Station and Union Station in Washington, D.C. on the weekend, a new early-morning weekday route between New York and Philadelphia’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station and a weekend route between Philadelphia and Boston’s South Station.

More Travel:

According to Amtrak, these additions will increase Northeast Corridor’s service by 20% on the weekdays and 10% on the weekends for a total of one million additional seats when counted by how many will ride the corridor over the year.

“More people are taking the train than ever before and we’re proud to offer our customers additional travel options when they ride with us on the Northeast Regional,” Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Eliot Hamlisch said in a statement on the new routes. “The Northeast Regional gets you where you want to go comfortably, conveniently and sustainably as you breeze past traffic on I-95 for a more enjoyable travel experience.”

Here are some of the other Amtrak changes you can expect to see

Amtrak also said that, in the 2023 financial year, the Northeast Corridor had nearly 9.2 million riders — 8% more than it had pre-pandemic and a 29% increase from 2022. The higher demand, particularly during both off-peak hours and the time when many business travelers use to get to work, is pushing Amtrak to invest into this corridor in particular.

To reach more customers, Amtrak has also made several changes to both its routes and pricing system. In the fall of 2023, it introduced a type of new “Night Owl Fare” — if traveling during very late or very early hours, one can go between cities like New York and Philadelphia or Philadelphia and Washington. D.C. for $5 to $15.

As travel on the same routes during peak hours can reach as much as $300, this was a deliberate move to reach those who have the flexibility of time and might have otherwise preferred more affordable methods of transportation such as the bus. After seeing strong uptake, Amtrak added this type of fare to more Boston routes.

The largest distances, such as the ones between Boston and New York or New York and Washington, are available at the lowest rate for $20.

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