Amtrak was handed a broken system in 1971 and has NEVER recieved proper funding to get a permanent fix. This is the governments fault, not Amtrak. Amtraks funding is been just barely enough to keep it limping along for all these years. The amount of funding the handed the airlines after 9/11 nearly equalled all of Amtraks funding over a 20 year period. This does not count indirect subsidy also in the billions of dollars given to airlines each year, and they are still in deep financial trouble.

Next lets look at intercity busses, they were given the free use of the highways of our land paying on fuel taxes. Just like the Truckers their fuel taxes do not pay 10% of the damage these heavy vehicles do, Again a subsidy.

No public rail system in the free world pays its way, the infrastructure costs are high just like major highways, but they are many, many times more effiecient than airlines and busses (trucks too).

Why do folks run down Amtrak, they either have energy related business, airline business or similar because rail uses much less fuel, hauls more people per unit of energy, less Carbon Footprint, fewer greehouse gasses, any way you look at it rail is our future rather than paving over the whole planet, and having the greenhouse gasses kill us off. That is why we need Amtrak growing NOW!