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Joe Boardman at the Midwest HSR Association

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“We ask Congress to make the right decisions by acting with prudence and having the courage to stay the course that they set in 1970 and 1971, and to pay justice for those who are being abandoned in rural areas.” If an objective of the long distance trains is to "pay justice for those who are being abandoned in rural areas", then Amtrak or another government agency should provide passenger train service to every community in the United States above a set population, i.e. 25,000, especially those that serve agricultural areas.  And the Congress should come up with the money fund it.   I am not sure what Boardman means by recovery of 12 cents on every dollar spent. In FY12 the long distance trains lost $600.9 million before depreciation, interest, and miscellaneous charges. The loss was 20.5 cents per passenger mile and 12.8 cents per seat mile. This was on revenues of $557.1 million.  Unless he is referring to the 12.8 cents lost for every seat mile, which clearly is not a recovery.  Unless he means 12 cents is the amount that most be recovered from the taxpayers.  If this is the case, it is not correct because the loss of 12.8 cents was before depreciation, etc., which in the case of the long distance trains is not great but probably adds a penny or two to the loss per seat mile.
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