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[quote user="schlimm"] As I had surmised, sam1 is including in the "subsidy" numbers the federal capital subsidy, when most people are referring  to operating subsidies when they discuss "above the rails" matters.  If highly used corridors are actually showing an operating profit as you show for NEC Acela services, and newer corridors are showing a profit at least in some months, then it would seem to be a logical conclusion that reducing/eliminating services with low load factors (low demand), increasing high load factor services should allow Amtrak, or whatever it morphs into, to break even.  We all know Amtrak has not been a business that is expected to show a profit.  If you keep putting forward that criterion as the standard for judgments, then it is rather facetious to continue to claim you are not opposed to a passenger rail system [/quote] Airlines, trucking companies, bus operators, cruise ship operators, etc. must cover all their costs.  Not just the operating costs!  Why should passenger rail be given a pass?  In FY09 only the Acela covered its operating costs.  No other route covered its operating costs, and most of them did not even come close.  Covering the operating costs for a month or two is not a very good test of its viability.  No business person would survive for very long if he or she only considered the operating costs.  The original intention was for Amtrak to cover its costs.  All of them!  Just because I believe that rail should cover its costs from the users, although I recognize that covering the operating costs is probably the only realistic expectation, does not mean that I am opposed to passenger rail.  I support passenger rail, where it can cover its operating costs and contribut to the capital costs.  I don't choose to hide my head in the sand regarding the cost of passenger rail.  Or use dodgy accounting to make a case for it.
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