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How to Invest in a Cannabis Stock

Are you interested in the marijuana sector? Experts explain what investors need to know about how to invest in a cannabis stock.
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The marijuana sector has experienced highs and lows over the past few years, with some cannabis stocks performing better than others.

Both new and sophisticated investors are interested in the cannabis market, as legal marijuana has opened the doors for many new players in the industry looking to expand their investment options.

But before any investor makes the decision to buy shares in the cannabis stock market, there are a number of key decisions that need to be made.

 

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The goal of the Investing News Network (INN) is to educate investors and help them make decisions with respect to their portfolios. We asked experts in the cannabis industry key questions to better understand how to invest in a cannabis stock. Here’s what they said.

How to invest in a cannabis stock: Does the company have a license?

One of the most crucial — if not the most crucial — components of any cannabis company is the type of license it may hold or could be applying for in the future.

Following an arduous review process, Canadian companies can qualify to obtain licensed producer status from Health Canada. They can then make products for the medical and recreational spaces.

In order to capture the recreational marijuana market, a producer will need to sign a supply agreement with a province so its cannabis products can find a space on store shelves or online.

Going through the application process with Health Canada is intense, and the government body increased its initial requirements in 2019 when it announced that marijuana grower applicants will have to own a fully built site that already meets the health agency’s standards.

Health Canada said this decision was made because after reviewing its licensing process, the government found its resources were being mismanaged and elected to enforce stricter initial standards for producer applicants.

Sean Gercsak, an investment advisor with Canaccord Genuity Group (TSX:CF,OTC Pink:CCORF), said licensed producers in Canada enjoyed impressive share price gains during the ramp up to marijuana legalization in October 2018.

According to Mason Brown, a director with Stoic Advisory, licenses are good indicators of where a company may be located in the marijuana supply chain.

The knowledge of what type of license — if any at all — a company holds can paint a clearer picture of where it is heading and if it’s worth investing in.

“Depending on the stage of the licensing process, generating revenue could be anywhere from days to months to years away,” Brown said.

 

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How to invest in a cannabis stock: Does the management team have experience?

Like any other industry, an investor should have a solid awareness of a company’s management team. For marijuana companies, this is especially important given the emergent nature of the space, the quick rise in options of stocks to buy and their market capitalizations.

“These are people you’re entrusting your money to, and if you can’t be confident about that, then by all means, don’t invest,” Alan Brochstein, a cannabis financial analyst with 420 Investor, told INN.

Brochstein suggested the first thing an investor should find out about the people leading a marijuana company is their experience in the market and their relationship to the industry.

For his part, Brown said two key indicators of an experienced management team are that some members have “strong, large-scale greenhouse growing experience” or executive experience from the pharmaceutical world — preferably someone involved with the launch of a blockbuster drug.

“Is management only here to make money, or do they have previous experience on the other side of the table, where cannabis made a material impact on their symptoms?” he said. “Together, these give a strong backing towards management’s passion for the industry and building their company.”

As the variety of available cannabis products branches out into other subsectors such as edibles, beverages and wellness products, it’s imperative to have a few team players on the roster that are well versed in these industries inside and outside the marijuana realm.

While interest and excitement for the marijuana industry continues to grow, pitfalls are still present in the space for those investing in marijuana stocks. A strong management team can mitigate investors’ exposure to such risks.

How to invest in a cannabis stock: What does its capital structure look like?

Brochstein said a quick review of any public company’s financial sheets will provide a lot of information on its model.

As cannabis companies mature into a world marked by increasing periods of economic upheaval, a strong balance sheet is a must. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, Nawan Butt, portfolio manager with Purpose Investments, told INN that in the Canadian marijuana sector in particular, attention is shifting to the sales performance of public cannabis producers.

 

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Butt said in order to evaluate their ability to survive the pressure from this tumultuous time, he’s been dedicating a lot of attention to the balance sheets of public cannabis companies.

John Zamparo, an analyst with CIBC Capital Markets, appears to agree with this strategy. In a note issued to investors, Zamparo stressed that in times of economic uncertainty, investors should have “a hyper-focus on balance sheet strength,” which he believes helps in the long run to protect against potential downturns in the space.

Being cash flow positive and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) positive, or at least on the path there, are positive signals for investors that these companies will have a better chance at accessing capital than their peers.

“Capital has been very challenging for companies lately,” Andrew Udell, a financial expert with the Cannalysts, said to INN. “Companies that have demonstrated earnings and demonstrated EBITDA-positive status are going to be able to access capital.”

How to invest in a cannabis stock: Does the company have strong branding and product visibility?

As the cannabis industry matures into more of a consumer packaged goods market, the experts are advising investors to look to companies that have mastered branding and product visibility. That’s no easy feat when you consider the myriad differences between the US and Canadian markets in terms of cannabis product promotion regulations.

The more successful companies will be those that can identify unmet needs in a highly competitive market. “There’s hundreds of different cannabis brands out there in the space, carving out space,” Leah Thiel, vice president of marketing at Indiva (TSXV:NDVA,OTCQX:NDVAF), told INN.

Thiel also pointed out that necessity of not assuming what works in Canada will work in the US. “We really need to understand the nuances,” she said. Understanding consumer brand awareness in a specific market also helps companies to convert that awareness into consumer loyalty, she explained.

In the fractured state-by-state US market landscape, smaller-scale companies are at a serious disadvantage when it comes to brand awareness and product visibility. Multi-state operators (MSOs) are better positioned to take on this challenge, but even they must still be strategic when launching products in new markets.

 

Cannabis Market Could Reach $5.5B By End Of Year

 
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How likely is it that a cannabis company can build its brand to a global scale on par with Nike (NYSE:NKE) or the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO)? “I would say it’s definitely harder to accomplish, (but) it’s not impossible,” Thiel told INN. That reality will greatly depend on cannabis shaking its federal ban in the US and the further opening up of international markets.

How to invest in a cannabis stock: What is the company’s strategy and target market?

These questions add to the concept of how much room the company still has for growth. Investors should be aware of the size of the company they are looking at, its specific market and where it can go after its initial strategy has been completed.

Brown told investors to evaluate the company’s aspirations and how likely it is to achieve those. “Does the company want to be a massive player in a small pond or a small player in a massive pond?”

Dan Ahrens, chief operating officer and portfolio manager at AdvisorShares, told INN that he’s looking at MSOs that are preparing for the eventual changes in policy the federal level. “(MSOs) are anticipating those walls coming down,” he said.

In the US, MSOs focused on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are experiencing the most growth as the fight to secure market share ahead of any potential opening up of the cannabis industry at the federal level.

“What MSOs are essentially trying to do is get ahead of the floodgates opening up because when a federal decriminalization of sorts happens … everybody can sort of come and establish themselves in the space,” Nawan Butt said.

The smart MSOs are targeting their M&A activity toward strong medical markets in which they have yet to establish assets. Charles Taerk, president and CEO of Faircourt Asset Management, told INN that more MSOs are employing an M&A strategy of buying single-state cannabis operators in a bid to increase their national footprint. “Everybody’s reaching out to acquire footholds in those growing strong medical markets,” he said. “They’re making an estimate on the relative strength of the different state markets. Because not every state is the same.”

On the international stage, major Canadian operators are considered the best positioned, but investors should consider this a long-term play. “When we look at the Canadian market, and the publicly listed companies that are in Canada, I think a lot of the value in those companies is seen in sort of long-term international positioning,” Kacey Morrissey, New Frontier Data’s senior director of industry analytics, told INN. “A lot of investors were looking at the Canadian market and that global strategic positioning for a longer-term play, and it’s just happening slowly.”

How to invest in a cannabis stock: In summary

As any investor can see, the cannabis market has a lot to offer now and in the future. In fact, the global cannabis market as a whole could reach as much as US$51 billion by 2025.

Investors interested in the area are encouraged to look around by experts like Aaron Salz, founder of Stoic Advisory, who said the unique marijuana industry is growing extremely fast.

“It’s not just a national movement; rather, it’s a global movement, with many large countries enacting regulations that will provide legal access to marijuana to tens of millions of people,” he said.


INNdepth

Want more details? Check out these articles for more INNdepth coverage:

Want an overview of investing in cannabis stocks? Check out Why Consider Investing in the Cannabis Industry?


This is an updated version of an article originally published by the Investing News Network in 2018.

Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Cannabis for real-time news updates!

Securities Disclosure: I, Melissa Pistilli, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

 

Cannabis Market Could Reach $5.5B By End Of Year

 
Experts Weigh In On Our Exclusive FREE Report. Can You Afford To Miss Out?
 

How to Invest in a Cannabis Stock

Are you interested in the marijuana sector? Experts explain what investors need to know about how...

The post How to Invest in a Cannabis Stock appeared first on Investing News Network.

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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…

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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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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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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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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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