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[quote user="V.Payne"] So what is the Silver Service "above the rail" operating loss? That is the question that was asked, right? I believe a loss based on Total Cost was quoted, but those total costs included about $1.2 billion in system wide below the rail, station, and other non-operating costs. Total costs losses just allocate those expenses based on revenue not an actual requirement best I can tell.  Seems like a bad schedule example for short trips was picked, why not one of the eastern routes? Some of t he corridor trips leave early, should they be cut? But still the on-topic point of this thread is what is a reasonable financial cost comparison, not the solution once that amount is found. [/quote] In FY12 the Silver Star lost $45.9 million or 20.9 cents per passenger mile, and the Silver Meteor lost $38.7 million or 16.7 cents per passenger mile before depreciation, interest, and miscellaneous charges. These are the variable costs, i.e. those that occur because the trains operate. They are more descriptive than above-the rail costs.  Embedded in the aforementioned costs are charges that on first blush might appear to be fixed costs, but in fact they are variable costs. One example is the insurance premium paid by Amtrak to indemnify the freight railroads that hoist it trains against certain risks arising from the operation of Amtrak's trains. If the long distance trains were discontinued, there would be no need for these premiums. Unless you have access to Amtrak's cost accounting books, you don't know how Amtrak allocates its costs. Amtrak's books are audited annually by the external auditors. If the company were not allocating its revenues and costs reasonably, the external auditors would raise a red flag. They have not done so. The discussion regarding variable and fixed costs misses a key point.  A viable business (commercial activity) has to recover all of its costs or it goes out of business. Amtrak is supposedly a commercial activity that is being operating like a business. It is not recovering all of its costs, even though it gets special exemptions, i.e. no fuel taxes, no property taxes, no inventory taxes, etc.
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