[timmb]

By stripping and selling off as many assets as you can and borrowing as much as possible leveraged on the income from future fares. There is no incentive to spend this on long term investment or contingency planning. The railways are an essential service so the government will always have to step in when the private company reaches breaking point, so no money is saved by the state in the end. It’s just disguised debt with terrible interest rates.

[dffdsa432]

Amtrak, a public rail company gets over a $1 billion in public funding. Private rail lines do not. Amtrak has operated at a loss for decades unlike private rails.

[DFHippie]

You are comparing completely different services, though, right? Private freight lines versus passenger? Amtrak runs on lines owned by the freight companies. I've been on an Amtrak train that had to sit on a siding while a freight train passed. The passenger service has to have a published, predictable schedule. The freight moves when it is needed and breaks the Amtrak schedule, leaving a crap passenger service.

I think the extent to which freight shoves aside passengers varies from region to region. My worst experience was going to West Virginia from DC. I find the Vermonter keeps its schedule pretty well.

[lifeonlars]

A "loss" here is just a politicized framing of the fact that government pays Amtrak to do something of use to society.

You might as well say that the US military makes a $1 trillion loss per year. No, they supply something which is required by the govt and which has a cost.

[ClumsyPilot]

So? In 2014, a total of $416 billion was spent on highway and water infrastructure