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The Boston Globe and Amtrak Long Distance

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Unlike defense or education or internal security, Amtrak is a commercial enterprise.  It was expected to function as a business and as such pay its way.   If Amtrak, which is an intercity carrier, is a public service, then so too are the airlines, intercity bus companies, etc.  They are not.  They are commercial businesses that are expected to cover their costs and provide a return to their shareholders.  When they fail to do so, as heaps of them have, they go out of business.    Several people who post to these forums claim that the sponsors of Amtrak designed it to fail.  To know that they would have to have access to the minds of the individuals involved.  Which means they would need access to the individuals thoughts, which could only be captured by a personal interview or on written documents, i.e. diaries, letters, Congressional Record, etc.  No one to my knowledge has produced evidence of these intentions. Amtrak's budget is indeed a rounding error compared to the federal budget.  But that is a poor benchmark.  Amtrak's competitors are expected to cover their costs.  Why should intercity passenger rail be off the hook?  What makes it so different?  Moreover, what the government spends on other activities is irrelevant to what it should devote to intercity passenger rail.  Rounding errors have a way of compounding.  Amtrak has lost an average of $56.6 million a month since its start-up in 1971.  Using the average 10 year Treasury Note interest rate, which is the best indicator of the cost of public funds, had the money that has been lost by Amtrak been invested in Treasury notes, it would be worth $133.7 billion today.  And that, amongst other things, would have bought a lot of school lunches.
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