Should a private held company find itself bound to serve the public at a loss? Should UPS or FedEx be required to bus our kids to school because their trucks use our streets?

It's an interesting point, but is easily clouded with opinion when we look at the very long-term relationship railroads have with both the important economic and national development during the early years of the industrial revolution and second, later wanted relief after the post-WWII industrial progress made long-distance and lightly patronized services relatively obsolete and perhaps inefficient.

Cunard, White Star, American President Lines and others long ago stopped hauling passengers on their ships. Where was the public outcry then and why didn't our government require an Amtrak of the Sea? Could a large part of the passenger train drama be attributed to attitudes on both sides of the fence more than a clinical analysis? For the record, I am in support of our national passenger system, and would like to see it vastly improved. I was born just before the advent of NRPC, and I've never seen any adminstration give it it's just due. You can expect Amtak to do a whole lot when the per capita share of federal support isn't on par with other modes of transportation handouts.