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Given the political environment in the United States, privatization of Amtrak, i.e. incorporate it as a stock company or break it into several stock companies, is probably not politically doable.  Too many people have a vested interest in the system as it is, i.e. Amtrak management, employees, political supporters,etc.  Once the government takes over a commercial activity; Amtrak is a commercial activity, privatizing it is very difficult. As I noted in a prior post, an Italian investor owned stock company is planning to launch privatized passenger rail service to connect Rome with three other Italian cities.  My information came from an article in Trains, which did not include any significant details regarding financing.  However, the project proponents claim that they will cover their costs out of the fare box. The Australians privatized a significant portion of their intercity train network, as well as the intrastate trains in Victoria.  And they privatized the trams, commuter trains, and buses in Melbourne, which is the second largest city in Australia.  However, they need and get substantial subsidies from the federal government in Canberra and the state government in Melbourne. One of the outcomes was an investment in new equipment by the corporate operators, paid for in part by improved employee productivity. I was involved in the privatization of the electric utility business in Australia.  It had been owned by the state of Victoria since the 1920s. It was known as the State Electric Commission of Victoria (SECV). As a result of privatization, the number of employees required to manage and operate the electricity grid in Victoria dropped from more than 27,000 to approximately 7,700. And the lights did not flicker once.   In Victoria the contracts to operate the public transport services were bid.  The companies that won them, which initially were for five years, had to agree to some reasonably robust performance standards, with the understanding that if they failed to perform satisfactorily, they would lose the contract as well as the performance incentives that were built into them. The last time that I checked one of them had lost its contract.  Most of my friends in Melbourne believe that the transport services have been much better following privatization or perhaps partial privatization would be a better term. Government entities have little incentive to do things better, faster, cheaper, unless they are in competition with alternative service providers, i.e. USPS competes with FedEx and UPS for package delivery business. Stock companies are accountable to their shareholders as well as their customers, employees, etc.  They have to do things better, faster, cheaper, with the operative word being better all the way around, or they go out of business, or in the case of single or sole source contracting, lose the contract.  For this reason, I believe that privatizing an Amtrak test market, e.g. NEC, with the appropriate subsidies, would be a worthwhile exercise.  It could provide some significant benefits.   One things is crystal clear.  Keep doing things the way they have always been done; don't try anything different; and in time an entity will wind up in the dust bin.
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