Amtrak is the only major corporation that provides inter-state passenger train

service in the continental United States. It was created in 1971 under the Rail Passenger

Service Act signed by President Richard Nixon. It came about as a response to the dire

situation that railroad companies faced in the United States during the middle of the

twentieth century (Solomon).

After World War Two the federal government invested heavily in infrastructure.

Government investment in seaports, airports, and highways led to the advent of relatively

inexpensive and efficient travel on interstate highways and by air travel. The number of

registered vehicles per person more than doubled between 1948 and 1971 (Kliesen &

Smith). As a result, ridership on passenger train lines fell dramatically. Wary of

government intervention however, the railroads declined to receive funding from the

federal government. State regulation, tough labor laws, and the suburbanization of

America (many passenger rail stations are located in the heart of cities) all led to the

decline of passenger trains. Railroad companies desperately wanted to drop unprofitable

passenger rail lines, but Congress forbade it. Many railroads were on the verge of

collapse. Something needed to be done (Quimby). Therefore, Congress drafted and

passed the Rail Passenger Service Act. The act mandated that railroads join a semi-

private rail corporation, provide money and equipment or, if they did not join, continue

running current passenger rail lines until 1975. America’s 20 companies that operated

passenger rail service all joined (How Amtrak Started in 1971). Today Amtrak is off the

rails. Once the worldwide leader in rail transport, America’s passenger rail system is

unprofitable and undesirable. Congress must relinquish control of Amtrak and allow it to
become a totally commercial corporation because Congress’ control has created chronic

unprofitability, mismanagement, and safety issues that have resulted in loss of life.

Amtrak is horrendously unprofitable. In its more than 45-year history, Amtrak has

never made money. Its net losses from 2010 to 2016 have been more than $1 billion

dollars per year (Beene). This does not mean that Amtrak is not used. Since its creation

Amtrak ridership has doubled. More people are riding the rails than ever before.

Additionally, Amtrak is more reliable than passenger airlines and safer than driving in a

car or riding a bus (Quimby).

Why then, does Amtrak lose so much money every year? The answer can be

found in its long-distance, cross-country routes. Amtrak provides two different services.

It has routes that are more than 400 miles and routes that are less than 400 miles. Amtrak

has 26 routes that travel under 400 miles. These services like the Acela in the Northeast

Corridor make money (Puentes).

Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor routes are successful for the same reason that all of

Amtrak’s short distance routes are successful. They travel through densely populated

areas. The metropolitan areas that the Acela services (Washington D.C., Philadelphia,

New York, Boston) are occupied by about the same number of people that live in Spain

(Yglesias). In 2012 the profits from the Acela and Northeast Regional lines alone were

able to offset the operating costs of the 24 other sub-400 routes.

The under-400 mile routes that Amtrak operates are its most popular. In 2012,

83% of all Amtrak riders rode on these trains. Additionally, all of these short lines serve

at least one major metropolitan area. Servicing major metropolitan areas is a key part of

Amtrak’s under-400 mile route success. Outside of the Northeast Corridor Amtrak’s most
popular routes are the Pacific Surfliner (Los Angeles-San Diego), the Capitol Corridor

(San Francisco-Sacramento) and the Hiawatha (Chicago-Milwaukee). Amtrak’s most

popular short distance routes service major cities that are the economic centers of their

region, and have heavily congested automobile and air traffic (Puentes).

Amtrak’s 400-mile plus trains are not as popular. They service long distance

routes between metropolitan centers and stop at many small, sparsely populated towns.

One such example is Amtrak’s Empire Builder. The Empire Builder travels 2,230 miles

from Chicago to Seattle in a grueling 46-hours (it’s only 30 hours by car; 4 and a half

hours by plane). Every time the train departs it loses money. From October of 2015 to

March of 2016 the Empire Builder lost more than $30 million dollars (Scheyder).

These long distance trains have low ridership and high operating cost. In 2012

Amtrak’s long distance routes accounted for 17% of Amtrak’s ridership, but made-up

43% of Amtrak’s ‘route-associated’ operating cost (Puentes). These long distance trains

are unpopular because they service sparsely populated areas and are incredibly slow. For

example, a car ride from Washington D.C. to Pittsburgh is 5 hours while a trip on the

Amtrak Capitol Limited from D.C. to Pittsburgh is 7 hours and 43 minutes. (Yglesias).

This time difference is attributable to the fact that outside of the Northeast Corridor,

Amtrak does not own the tracks on which it operates. Amtrak takes a back seat to freight

traffic on its long distance routes causing monumental delays (Halsey). Many of these

long distance routes remain part of the Amtrak system in order to appease members of

Congress from sparsely populated areas like North Dakota.

There is currently a move to change this. President Trump has proposed cutting

funding for Amtrak’s long distance routes in his 2019 budget. If passed, Amtrak would
be unable to operate routes like the Empire Builder because they are so heavily

subsidized (Ivanova). This has been proposed before and it’s unlikely to get much

support as powerful Congressmen from rural districts want Amtrak to continue servicing

their constituency. If Congress allowed Amtrak to drop these long distance routes or

charge for tickets what it actually costs to run them, Amtrak would be a profitable

organization (Plumer).

Amtrak is mismanaged in this way. According to the Brookings Institute “many

analyses, discussions, and testimony about Amtrak and its operations fail to recognize the

sharp differences in the network” between the profitability of popular short distance

routes and the failure of trains like the Empire Builder (Puentes).

Congress has politicized Amtrak. Democrats blame Amtrak’s failure on

Republicans who don’t want to spend money on the company. Republicans view Amtrak

as an unnecessary expenditure and push to either cut funding entirely for the company or

make it completely privatized. Instead of legitimate policy Congress gives Amtrak

loosely worded mandates. A 2014 audit found that Amtrak management thought “so

many legislatively mandated tasks and responsibilities had accumulated over time that it

was unclear what to focus on. That view was evident in the company’s 2011 strategic

plan, which had five strategic themes, seven strategies, numerous initiatives and dozens

of performance measures” (Amtrak Truth and Politics).

Congress needs to find a better way of providing Amtrak with subsidies. Amtrak

has never received a permanent line in the federal budget meaning the company is unable

to know how much money it can or should spend. If Amtrak needs money from Congress
they have to ask for it. This makes it almost impossible for Amtrak to create a plan to

improve its infrastructure and equipment and improve as a company (Puentes).

Mismanagement is evident throughout the company. Infrastructure improvement

projects are often mismanaged, become delayed and are overly expensive. One example

is the New Jersey High Speed Rail Improvement Program. Since 2009 Amtrak had a plan

to make a 23 mile stretch of track between New Brunswick, New Jersey and Trenton,

New Jersey faster by installing high speed overhead wires. The project was estimated to

cost $450 million federal tax dollars and be finished by June 2017. A report in July 2017

by NBC 4 New York found that the project was largely uncompleted and $64 million

dollars over budget. They also found that the project was delayed with a new completion

date of November 2018 (NBC 4). In 2015 an Amtrak Inspector General’s report found

that the primary manager on the project had committed “gross mismanagement of funds

and resources”. Amtrak’s CEO admitted that the project had been hastily conceived and

was “not well managed” (Acquisition and Procurement: New Jersey High Speed Rail

Improvement Program Has Cost and Schedule Risks).

Amtrak’s food and beverage service is another prime example of

mismanagement. From 2001 to 2011 Amtrak has lost $833 million dollars selling

foodstuff. Amtrak looses money on every item of food it sells. A 2011 Transportation and

Infrastructure committee hearing found that every cheeseburger sold on an Amtrak train

costs taxpayers $6.65 (A Review of Amtrak Operations). The same hearing also

uncovered more than 900 instances of theft, dishonesty, and policy/procedure violations

in Amtrak’s food and beverage service. However, Amtrak’s powerful union makes it

difficult for the corporation to fire troublesome or unproductive employees.

 Amtrak is plagued with safety and reliability issues. A large part of this is due to

freight rail companies. Amtrak does not own the tracks it operates on. 70% of the miles

traveled by Amtrak trains are on rail lines owned and operated by freight rail companies

(Isidore). The only rail lines that Amtrak owns entirely are those in the Northeast

Corridor. When Amtrak was created in the early 70’s Congress took steps to ensure that

Amtrak trains got priority over freight trains on freight-owned lines so that passenger

trains could run on time. However this mandate was overruled in 2016 after the

Association of American Railroads filed suit complaining that Amtrak didn’t have the

right to ‘regulate freight railroads’ (Halsey). This established a dangerous precedent.

Freight rail companies that view Amtrak as a nuisance to their service don’t take the

necessary steps to keep their tracks safe or accommodate rail passenger service. This

results in massive delays and the deaths of innocent rail passengers.

For example, in 2008 Congress mandated the implementation of technology that

would slow down trains going too fast, prevent collisions, and alert the engineer when

they are approaching a switch set the wrong way. This technology is called positive train

control (PTC). . If an engineer doesn’t slow down when approaching an obstacle,

crossing, or curve PTC automatically slows down the train. PTC is in place across Asia,

Europe, and Africa. It’s even in third world countries like Mozambique (Ross). PTC was

supposed to be installed nationwide by 2015. Congress delayed implementation of the

system when major freight railroad companies said that they needed more time (“Owner

of Track Asked for Extension to Install Technology ‘Designed to Prevent’ S.C. Train

Wreck”). The extended deadline called for positive train control to be installed by the end

of this year. However the Federal Railroad Administration recently said that "few, if any,
of the 41 railroads" subject to the law will implement PTC in time for the new deadline

(Beene).

One such company was freight rail company CSX. CSX owns the rail lines that

were used in the deadly February 4th train crash involving a stationary CSX locomotive

and a southbound Amtrak train. A track switch was in the wrong directions sending the

Amtrak train onto a sidetrack. CSX was responsible for operating that switch. The crash

could have been prevented with positive train control. This accident caused roughly $25

million in damage, making it more expensive than all of the rail accidents in the state of

South Carolina combined during this decade (“Fatal Amtrak Crash Caused More Damage

than the past Decade of S.C. Rail Accidents Combined”). Federal records show that only

half of CSX lines are equipped with positive train control.

Positive train control could have prevented a number of deadly crashes. This past

year an Amtrak train was running on newly built tracks that allowed for higher speeds in

Washington state. The train conductor was unaware that as he approached a 30 mph

curve he was traveling at 80 mph. The train derailed onto an interstate, killing three

people (Ross). The company that operates the rail lines, Sound Transit, had failed to fully

implement PTC before opening up the tracks (Gelinas). Although PTC was installed on

the track, it had not yet been switched on. Even so, Sound Transit is far ahead of most

American rail companies in the implementation of PTC (Ross).

Many Amtrak crashes aren’t only due to a lack of PTC but by the negligence of

freight railroad employees. One of the deadliest Amtrak crashes occurred in 1987 when a

Conrail freight locomotive collided head on with an Amtrak train heading northbound

outside of Baltimore. Conrail engineer Ricky Gates and some of his crew had smoked
marijuana before operating their train. They had also failed to fix a warning whistle that

had been tampered with and drove through multiple stop signals. Their train collided

head on with an Amtrak train, causing the deaths of 16 people (VHS Newsreel – Chase

Maryland Amtrak/Conrail Crash 1987). Amtrak was in no way responsible for that

accident. Even so Amtrak was supposed to pay negligence fees until a federal judge

ordered that Conrail pay for its “reckless, wanton, willful, or grossly negligent acts…”

(Horwitz). This accident occurred on Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor highlighting that even

on it’s own tracks Amtrak trains aren’t necessarily safe. Additionally, if PTC were

installed it could have prevented this accident.

In many instances Amtrak has to pay for the negligence of major freight

companies like CSX. Amtrak often pays for the millions of dollars in damage caused by

these wrecks, even if it’s the fault of someone else. It happens time and time again. Poor

maintenance of rail lines by companies like CSX cause deadly crashes involving Amtrak

trains and Amtrak is forced to pay the settlement claims (“Owner of Track Asked for

Extension to Install Technology ‘Designed to Prevent’ S.C. Train Wreck”).

The New York Times found that since 1984 Amtrak has had to pay more than

$186 million “for accidents blamed entirely or mostly on others”. Amtrak has to pay

these fees because of their agreement with freight companies (Bogandich). In order to

provide national rail service Amtrak has had to negotiate secretive agreements with over

25 different rail companies that own the tracks on which passenger service operates. The

one constant among all of the agreements is that the freight companies are at “no fault.”

Associated Press writer Jeff Horwitz explains ‘no fault’ means that Amtrak “… takes full

responsibility for its property and passengers and the injuries of anyone hit by a train. The
"host railroad" that operates the tracks must only be responsible for its property and

employees”. So if a passenger on an Amtrak train dies in an accident caused by freight

railroads negligence, Amtrak has to pay. Although the Surface Transportation Board gave

Amtrak the right to try and get freight companies to pay negligence fees, Amtrak often

does not for fear of retaliation (Horwitz).

Congress has taken no action to hold rail companies accountable for installing

safety equipment or accommodating Amtrak. Even since the 1930’s it has been

recommended that PTC be installed on tracks. In 1990 the National Transportation Safety

Board added PTC to its list of most wanted transport safety improvements. Yet PTC has

still not been installed across most of the country. The freight rail industry has spent tens

of millions of dollars lobbying Congress trying to prevent or delay PTC implementation.

Instead of protecting Amtrak and the American people who ride it, Congress has listened

to special interests (Ross).

Congress must to relinquish its control of Amtrak. It has failed to take the

necessary steps to make the railroad profitable by not allowing it to get rid of unprofitable

routes, failed to keep the railroad safe and protect it from being exploited by freight rail

companies, and allow rampant mismanagement throughout the company. If Amtrak were

privatized it could become profitable by focusing on short train routes that connect major

metropolitan areas, negotiate better rail contracts with freight train companies, and hire

productive managers committed to running a well-managed, for-profit corporation.