The Unied States Supreme Court in 1925 upheld the right of a regulatory commission to require an electric company to use profits from selling electricity to subsidize a streetcar operation (Fort Smith Traction v. Bourland). The result was that electric companies began spinning off their streetcar operations. This decision also allowed the ICC to force railroads to contine money losing passenger operations subsidized by freight revenue. So the creation of AMTRAK was a continuation of this policy of spinning off a money losing business.