Founded 54 years ago, Amtrak set out on a bold adventure to revitalize passenger rail. Fast forward to today, and this experiment has failed. Politicians have often crafted routes to win votes rather than attract riders. As a result, Amtrak has been squandering taxpayer money since 1971.
Amtrak ignored profits under Democrats but now claims it will be profitable to win GOP votes. Despite reporting a $661.7 million loss for fiscal year 2025, it failed to include:
- $1.05 billion in depreciation.
- $364.2 million in "Project Related Expenses."
- $328.1 million in state subsidies.
- $28.1 million in Office of Inspector General funding.
With its real costs factored in, the notion that Amtrak can ever turn a profit is a pipe dream. In fact, Amtrak is demanding larger subsidies than ever before.
Take, for instance, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. It allocated a monumental $66 billion to bolster passenger rail. Despite this support, Amtrak's losses soared from $1.12 billion in fiscal year 2019 to $2.09 billion by fiscal year 2025. This financial drain isn't new; America's passenger trains have lost money for 80 years.
Lawmakers rarely realize that travelers prefer north-south routes because of the weather. In FY2025 alone, Amtrak's east-west routes lost over $530 million. Meanwhile, the Auto Train, Virginia to Florida, made a $9.3 million profit. In fact, train travelers favor north-south routes over east-west routes by a ratio of three to one.
Between Chicago and Los Angeles, the Desert Wind lost less money than the Southwest Chief. Yet, Amtrak favored the Southwest Chief, which passed through more congressional districts. It discontinued the Desert Wind in 1997, leaving Las Vegas without train service.
Today, the Southwest Chief still loses money. Its losses soared from $56.1 million in fiscal year 2019 to $81.7 million by fiscal year 2025. It also uses a lower-quality track than freight trains from Chicago to Los Angeles. Since 2014, taxpayers have spent at least $45 million for its track repairs.
State-supported routes under 750 miles are doing even worse. In FY2019, they were 41 percent full; by FY2025, that dropped to 39 percent. This is much lower than the 56 percent load factor of long-distance routes.
- The route from Springfield to New Haven was only 28 percent full and lost $36 million.
- The route from New York to Harrisburg was only 27 percent full and lost $46 million.
- The route from Oakland to Bakersfield was only 24 percent full and lost $69 million.
- The route from San Luis Obispo to San Diego was only 28 percent full and lost $75 million.
- Amtrak spent $2 billion to increase speed between Chicago and St. Louis. Despite the speed increase, there are only a few more passengers aboard.
Why does Congress continue to subsidize Amtrak when it hasn't produced effective results? One reason is that advocates blame highway subsidies for Amtrak's financial woes. Yet, Amtrak guzzles over 39 times more subsidies per passenger-mile than highways do.
Another common exaggeration is that airports are bursting at the seams. For instance, the busiest airline route, New York to Miami, carries 28,616 daily passengers. It's a notable number, but not indicative of widespread congestion along other routes.
Amtrak touted a ridership record for fiscal year 2025. Yet, these ridership numbers don't reflect average trip length. A more insightful metric is passenger-miles, which measures how far people are traveling. In fact, east-west passenger-miles have fallen by 20 percent since fiscal year 2011.
Amtrak also blames freight trains for "interfering" with its passenger services. Yet, America’s private freight railroads are thriving. Freight railroads maintain their own tracks, but do not rely on subsidies. Why should Amtrak?
Senators Jerry Moran, R-Ks., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., see Amtrak as an "essential service." Yet, Amtrak accounts for a tiny 0.001 percent of travel. For every small town served by Amtrak, there are at least 40 others with no train service. In fact, Americans travel more miles by bicycle than they do via Amtrak.
Even if Amtrak vanished, travelers would still have many options. On average, it would cost less to give each passenger a free airline ticket than to subsidize Amtrak. The average airfare in 2025 is about $0.22 per passenger-mile. This is much lower than Amtrak’s subsidies of about $0.98 per passenger-mile.
If Congress continues to subsidize Amtrak, its losses will only get worse. Since 1971, Congress has exhausted ways to limit the growth of Amtrak's subsidies.
- Clinging to routes that have lost money for 54 years is a sunk cost fallacy.
- Investing in “high-speed rail” won't help. Ridership on the high-speed Acela train has decreased by 12 percent since FY2019. Meanwhile, slower Northeast Regional trains have seen a 34 percent increase in riders.
- After Siemens made political donations, Amtrak started buying its locomotives. These locomotives have small fuel tanks and need to stop more often for fuel.
- Outsourcing routes won't help, as taxpayers would still foot the bill. Politicians would still plan routes, and private contractors would pocket the subsidies.
- Changing Amtrak's leadership isn’t the answer, either. All that would do is create a scapegoat for the pork barrel spending that has plagued Amtrak for 54 years.
The only way to stop politicians from playing favorites with routes is to end the subsidies. Political control over subsidies means that ending them would also end that control. Other "reforms" are unlikely to succeed, as they would still allow political interference.
Eliminating subsidies wouldn't spell the end for passenger trains. Amtrak's long-distance trains offer two classes: coaches and sleeping cars. Sleeping cars are more profitable, with fares comparable to those from 1946. Coach seats are hard to fill, even when inflation-adjusted prices are 80 percent lower now.
In fact, successful all-sleeper trains, such as Australia’s Ghan, operate without subsidies. This innovative approach suggests similar potential for Amtrak. These all-sleeper trips could offer a unique travel experience using existing rails:
- Hoboken to Miami via Charleston, every other day.
- Hoboken to Los Angeles via Denver and Las Vegas, every four days.
- Seattle to Los Angeles via Oakland, every four days.
Since Congress can't predict route success, it should cut rail subsidies to zero. The President should also veto any bill that subsidizes Amtrak. Finally, Congress should repeal the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021, which squandered $66 billion in subsidies for passenger rail.
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