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Ed: So we agree on most points but the first. I would say, what business in their right mind would go into the passenger business in the 1970s, when not only passenger traisn looked antiquated, but rail itself seemed doomed as a free-enterprise feild? None, so Amtrak was formed to serve VERY political ends. And later, even today, no third party company in their right mind would run trains for passengers as long as a government funded monopoly is around. Heck, how would they get trackage? Station service? FRA cooperation? Amtrak could just freeze them out of their assets and the big RRs would just laugh in their face w/o government backing. There is only one other entity that could take on this project; the original railroads. This is something they haven't done basically because they have enough problems as it is getting back to where they used to be for freight. If Amtrak goes away, things could radically alter... government contracted third parties, for example, could come in..... As for subsidies? Yeah, I get you. I'd like a Jaguar XK8, doesn't mean that Congress ought to buy me one. And we don't fund aisling ships with government money either. I DON'T have a problem with rail infrastructure getting tax dollars... it's just another road or terminal, different mode. But I don't like operational money going to these things. it is, however, a fact of life in all "alternate" forms of transport, from city buses to light rail to subways. There is, of course, one more possiblity..... advertising, and the visibility that a passenger train brought to pre Amtrak railroads, is now on the minds of the Brass Hats at last..... maybe a certain four-letter carrier might take it under advisement that a few green and orange "streamliners" would make their companies a lot more visible...... and show off just how fast their service can be.....
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