February 15, 2009: Richmond Times-Dispatch "Why Amtrak Can’t—and Never Will—Make Money"

Some politicians, doctrinaire conservatives in particular, insist that passenger trains should be run with private capital, and government has no business subsidizing them. It's a strange concept since government helped the early railroads develop, providing land and even capital.

Since the days of the ancient Greeks, government has subsidized transportation, building lighthouses and roads, dredging rivers, and so on. Amtrak's critics ignore the hard fact that regularly scheduled passenger trains might have made money 100 years ago but can't today -- not just here, but almost anywhere in the world. The incredible passenger networks of Europe are government-subsidized.

Read more