Capital Gains and Games: It Would Be Cheaper for the Government to Pay People to Fly Than Ride Amtrak
According to a new study, Amtrak lost $462 per passenger on its route from New Orleans to Los Angeles and $193 per passenger on its route from Chicago toSan Francisco in 2008. In each case I found a variety of airline flights for just over $100 on these routes. Therefore, it would have been cheaper for Amtrak to buy its passengers free airplane tickets than transport them. I don't know what Amtrak charges because, as is often the case,its web site is down.
Overall, Amtrak lost $32 on every single passenger it carried last year. This is four times greater than Amtrak's own estimate because it does not include depreciation in calculating profit and loss. The SEC would throw in jail the CEO of a private, publicly-held corporation that calculated its profits that way.
http://subsidyscope.com/pr
