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The data comes from official documents, i.e. the budget and performance reports of the Department of Transportation, FAA, Homeland Security, etc.  There is nothing in these reports that suggests anyone even cares about Amtrak let alone have a motive to kill it.  The data also comes from Amtrak's financial statements and performance reports.  All data is audited by internal and external auditors.For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007, Amtrak's passengers received an average subsidy of $40.68 or 18.6 cents a passenger mile based on a federal subsidy of $1.051 billion to cover its operating loss.  The subsidy was higher if the total federal and state government payments of $1.4 billion are considered.  The average subsidy for long distance passengers was nearly $130, while the subsidy for NEC and other corridor passengers was $3.02 and $16.00.  The money provided to Amtrak by the federal government, when viewed on an average per passenger and per passenger mile basis, is the largest subsidy received by any form of transport in the United States, with the exception of some local transit subsidies.  Domestic airline passengers, by comparison, received an average federal subsidy of $1.03 or .12 cents per passenger mile in 2007.  My point is this; passenger train advocates tend to present only the information that helps make their case, i.e. increase in number of riders and revenues without mentioning the costs or the loss per passenger mile; comparing gross numbers, i.e. federal spend on highways vs. federal spend on Amtrak without breaking it down to passenger seat miles or vehicle miles traveled, which is the honest way to compare the spends.    NARP says that, "FAA Operations get general funds as well as funding from the aviation trust fund", i.e. $1.453 billion in fiscal year 2007.  They don't point out that the monies received from the aviation trust fund are generated by air carrier ticket and fuel taxes.  Nor do they point out that the intra-governmental transfer represents approximately 15 per cent of the FAA's budget.  They don't break out the categories of general aviation, i.e. commercial airlines, air taxis, general aviation, military operations in civilian airspace, etc., thereby creating the impression that most if not all of the federal transfer (subsidy) goes to the airlines or aviation operations that compete with trains.  They don't mention that only 30 per cent of FAA operations involve controlling commercial airline flights, and people who fly around the country in their own plane or the company jet are not candidates for taking a train.  NARP pointed out recently that the number of riders on the Sunset Limited, for example, increased significantly in 2007.  And they pointed to a corresponding increase in revenue.  What they did not mention is that a Sunset passenger traveling from Los Angles to New Orleans gets a federal subsidy of nearly $1,000 or that a passenger traveling from Los Angles to anywhere on the Sunset route gets a subsidy of 48.5 cents a passenger mile before interest and depreciation.  This data is verifiable.  NARP may be an influential pro-rail group; it may even be the most influential.  But its clout has not been over whelming.  It was not able to prevent the discontinuance of the Three Rivers.  It has not been able to force Amtrak to restore the Sunset Limited between New Orleans and Orlando.  And it has not been able to get Amtrak to restore the Coast Starlight between Sacramento and Portland as quickly as it wants.  The reason, I suspect, is because the real decision makers don't spend a lot of time worrying about passenger train enthusiasts of any stripe.   Trains make sense in relatively short, high density corridors.  They can help relieve air and highway congestion in these corridors under select circumstances.  Hoping on a train from New York to Wilmington or Washington is a viable option for people close to the corridor.  But long distance trains do not make any sense, as suggested by the amount of the subsidy per passenger mile that they require and the tiny percentage of the public that uses them.  Riding a train overnight from New York to Cleveland does not make sense, especially for time constrained business persons.  There is very little market for it.  The railroads learned this lesson decades ago.
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