The beleaguered rail operator scored $66 billion in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). After years of legislative chaos on the infrastructure front, nothing is certain. But if the bill passes, Amtrak will get some stability that adds up to a vote of confidence.
In 2019, Amtrak passengers made 32.5 million trips across the entire national network (via PR email).
So, the subsidy should be $2,000 per annual passenger journey?
Maybe we should just buy them each a car?
And since 90% of them would be New York-Washington…
It’s actually about 50% on the ‘North East Corridor’ (Bos-Wash) – 17.1 million annual trips. Amtrak carry only 8% of the passengers on the NEC, the others are on local commuter operators that share the rails. The rest of Amtrak is taken up by wealthy tourists (domestic and foreign – less wealthy tourists use Greyhound) and those who can’t or won’t fly (a lot of them Amish).
Sorry 6.5%, not 8% (typing too fast). Whatever, it’s a tiny proportion.
I read that the New York transit system will be receiving $10bn in addition to the $66bn for Amtrak.
It is a very long bill and in common with every senator who will be voting on it I have no realistic way of knowing what else is hidden away.
Is 66bn a multi year number?
Best plan is to sink this P-O-S Bill and remove CCP Joe and Kowmara from office.
Not going to happen because of worldwide Mug Quotient.
Seems nobody much is bothered about the power grab either or the horrific future the globo cunts have lined up for us. So the MQ will be behind the ruin and maybe even the death of most if not all of us.
I dare say trade unions do better out of Amtrak than taxpayers do.
That is presumably the point of it.
It is a very long bill and in common with every senator who will be voting on it I have no realistic way of knowing what else is hidden away.
What every senator does know is this: The bill will have some pork for their state. As of right now it looks like 18 Republican senators will receive enough pork to be considered bought off.
Is this bung just for passengers? IIRC US railroads carry mostly freight. (About the inverse of the UK ratio.)
Amtrack is passenger only…..
The US is just too big for effective passenger rail services, given the existence of safe, reliable air connections (even if there were high speed lines, this would still be true). There are plenty (and increasing amounts) of local passenger services around the big cities (even LA), but the long-haul services run by Amtrak are more in the way of land cruises than an efficient way of getting from (say) Chicago to San Francisco – unless you can’t (or don’t want to) fly, you meet a lot of Pennsylvania Dutch on these trains.