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[quote user="Railway Man"] Possibly we have peeled the onion to its final layer.  Is Amtrak a "commercial enterprise"?   Would the majority of American voters so characterize it?  Given that the majority of voters and their elected/appointed representatives that I deal day-to-day have the belief that freight railroading is a social enterprise, I wonder. RWM [/quote] If it looks like a commercial enterprise, walks like a commercial enterprise, and quacks like a commercial enterprise, as is the case for Amtrak, it is probably a commercial enterprise, albeit it one that is run by the federal government. No transportation economist or business person would argue that an airline, intercity bus company, trucker, etc. is not a commercial enterprise.  Airlines, intercity bus companies, and Amtrak do the same thing.  They rent space on their vehicles to transport fare paying passengers.  All of them have social as well as economic value. Amtrak is different from the airlines and intercity bus companies.  It cannot make it on its own, so it is propped up by the federal government to the tune of more than $1.4 billion per year.  Surveys have shown that a significant percentage of Americans, as well as many of their elected representatives, like passenger trains, even though less than five per cent use them.  I wonder if they understand the economics of passenger trains, i.e. who really pays for them.  I suspect that most of the surveys that have been conducted to determine the public's interest in passenger trains were telephone interviews.  They are notorious for generating superficial results.  NARP quotes surveys frequently to support the expansion of passenger rail.  I asked NARP for the methodology use by the survey administrators.  I am still waiting for an answer.
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