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Amtrak: What a topic. I really enjoyed the article in the Oct or Nov 2002 issue duscussing the true costs of the operations. It is true that the long distance trains and the NE corrider do subsidize each other. Both are needed for the system to continue. When you look at the big picture of public travel here and abroad, no form of transportaion that carries people makes a profit on its own. Even the airlines when they did make a profit ( and I mean an operating profit) the margin was very low. Carrying freight was the real money maker.The problem is made worse when the costs of the infrastructure are figured in.To make things worse, the government has never been able to do anything at an operating profit. Why would runnning a railroad be different. The service just has to be looked at as a public service. There are a few routes that might come close to covering themseleves if marketed properly. IT was demonstrated before Amtrak when the private carriers made money on a few special trains, but the allocation of costs is critical in this business. One thing that is a fact of life is that if private industry has a chance to rip off the government in anything, it will. So they rip off Amtrak for handling their trains. What else is new. The only solution even close to working would be to nationalize all of the tracks just as the highways are and lease their time and usage to the freight companies and any carrier that might want to operate a passanger train on them. Short of some changes, nothing will change. <br />
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