Quote:

Amtrak's advocates often label its unprofitable routes as “essential services.” Yet, the reality is that Amtrak accounts for a minuscule 0.001% of passenger-miles. For every small town served by Amtrak, there are at least 40 others without any train service. If Amtrak were to vanish, travelers would still have many options.

The fact that the federal government all but allowed Greyhound to wither and is now on life support, is solid evidence that Amtrak has no justification for existence, at least as a federally owned and controlled entity.

For those who argued Amtrak provided critical and essential transport to people with few/no options to things like medical care - you gave the middle finger to those who depended on Greyhound. Far more communities had a Greyhound stop than an Amtrak station. Amtrak had no problem blowing through small towns at 79 MPH, where a Greyhound bus would find a stop somewhere and pick up someone with no other means. Greyhound, was strictly essential travel...no steak, no wine, no sleeping cars, no lounge cars. Amtrak? It's a cruise train. For the rich.

It's time to kill Amtrak. Those who want to support it...need to step up, start a new investor owned corporation, buy Amtrak at fair market value, start paying FULL state & federal taxes...