Financial Health of United States’ Main Passenger Train System (Amtrak) Improving

Good news: According to Amtrak’s preliminary Fiscal Year 2019 (Oct. 1, 2018-Sept. 30, 2019) report, the railroad set ridership, revenue and financial performance records toward its FY 2020 goal of “achieving operational break-even.”

For some reason, financial support for Amtrak in congress is always a controversial issue.  Do we really want to abandon a huge element of our transportation infrastructure just because it doesn’t make money?  The rest of the developed world looks at its rail system as part of the cost of being a member of a civilized society; it doesn’t care about its P/L.

Of course, some countries have better train service than others; here’s BCG’s recent report on the subject.