Does BNSF own 40% of Amtrak? Seems i read that somewhere.
In which case the huge subsidies for rail passenger lines, also lines the pockets of BNSF to that extent. Sweet deal if so. Right up obamaumao’s infrastructure alley so to speak.
Years ago I had a conversation with BNSF's VP of Passenger Operations, and we had a good laugh about the stock when I suggested BNSF use it to force liquidation of Amtrak.
BNSF, however, uses Amtrak as a profit center. Every year Amtrak pays BNSF around $7 million to keep their trains on time. However, this serves another purpose.
Every morning, the Passenger Ops VP gets a printout of how well the railroad has serviced Amtrak. This report tells him how well his network is flowing. It's like the canary in the coal mine. If Amtrak is late, it means that there are other problems in the system. If so, that printout is buck-slipped to the other VP's at Fort Worth so they can see where the problems are and what can be done about them.
In that sense, Amtrak is a useful tool for BNSF.