06-08-2008, 04:08 PM
[quote freeradical]
Look, I'm a fan of public transportation, but I can see no good reason for Amtrak to try and cover the whole breadth of the nation. I'd like to see them become primarily a commuter railroad in high density areas like the northeastern corridor of the U.S., with their funding coming from those state and local governments.
I'm not going to spend hours searching the documentation, but it's been widely reported that Amtrak loses money on most of it's long runs. I'm fairly certain that even the Lake Shore Limited, from NYC to Chicago is a loser. The Albany-NYC corridor is profitable, as are many of the CA and Northeast commuter/business corridors. The long routes can't make money off occasional and vacation travelers.
Look, I'm a fan of public transportation, but I can see no good reason for Amtrak to try and cover the whole breadth of the nation. I'd like to see them become primarily a commuter railroad in high density areas like the northeastern corridor of the U.S., with their funding coming from those state and local governments.
I'm not going to spend hours searching the documentation, but it's been widely reported that Amtrak loses money on most of it's long runs. I'm fairly certain that even the Lake Shore Limited, from NYC to Chicago is a loser. The Albany-NYC corridor is profitable, as are many of the CA and Northeast commuter/business corridors. The long routes can't make money off occasional and vacation travelers.