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Amtrak is a government sponsored commercial operation.  Therefore, it should be judged on its merits and not how much the government, or for that matter any other entity, spends on other activities. Amtrak has lost an average of $643 million per year since its inception.  The compounded opportunity cost of the losses is approximately $71 billion.  This is the amount that the government would have had at the end of 40 years if it had invested the money as opposed to underwriting Amtrak's losses.  Most Americans would agree, I think, that security (national, state, local), education, housing, health care, transport infrastructure, some utility services, etc. are in the public interest.  Whether they think a government funded intercity railroad is in the public interest is debatable.  I don't.  It is a commercial enterprise, irrespective of the ownership.  It should be able to cover its costs, or it should be allowed to die.  The taxpayers, most of whom don't ride intercity trains, should not have to pay for them. Put yourself in the shoes of a stockholder in Greyhound, Trailways, Eastern Airlines, etc. in May 1971?  You were generating a small return on your investment.  Management had been successful in offering intercity passenger services whilst the railroads had come to realize that they could not make a go of intercity passenge rail and needed to get out of the product line before it wrecked their businesses.  In steps the federal government, announcing that it is going to sponsor a government owned passenger train system to compete with the companies in which you have invested your money.  Fair? Of course, this argument will go on forever.  People like me, who think that markets are better allocators of scarce economic resources, will never justify having the government run a commercial operation.  Others, with a different point of veiw, which clearly has legitimate points to support it, will never see my point of veiw.
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