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[quote user="Bjorn88"] I suspect you can only say that LD trains are mainly for  "land cruising" is because you haven't travelled on one in many years.  On my trips to the Northwest using the Empire Builder I see people getting on and off at small towns across North Dakota and Montana even at wee hours of the night.  It is not just a "cruise" for most of the passengers.  By the measure of passenger miles rather than just numbers of passengers the long distance trains do much better than the "corridors".[/quote] I pulled the numbers for FY10 re: fully allocated costs and losses for the NEC, short corridor trains, and long distance trains.  I used the monthly operating reports and the audited annual financial report.  I assumed that 80 per cent of Amtrak's depreciation and interest charges are allocable to the NEC, with 10 per cent worn by each of the other two product lines. The average fully allocated loss per passenger for the NEC was $48.67 vs. $21.68 for the short corridor trains and $144.15 for the long distance trains.  On a passenger per mile basis, after full allocation of all costs, the average loss was 20.8 cents for the NEC, 16.5 cents for the short corridor trains, and 23.1 cents for the long distance trains.   The long distance trains lost $575.5 million in FY10 before depreciation, interest, and other charges.  This compares to an operating profit of $51.5 million for the NEC and a lost of $231.1 million for the short corridor trains.  In FY11 the long distance trains lost $615.4 million. It is true that the long distance trains don't lose as much per passenger mile compared to the other two product lines as many people believe.  Nevertheless, the taxpayers must write a bigger check to cover the losses incurred by the long distance trains.  Moreover, as some folks with inside knowledge have pointed out, Amtrak probably is not reimbursing the hoist railroads for the fully allocable cost of carrying its long distance trains. If a competitive business had three product lines, one of which was losing millions of dollars and had little if any probability of breaking even, it would drop it and concentrate its efforts on the product lines that are covering their costs or are likely to be able to do so.
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