[Publius]

Passenger trains have not made money on their own since the unions gained power in the Twenties. So the federal government effectively subsidized them by giving them the US mail contract. In 1968 the post office gave that contract to the airlines, and thus there was no hope whatsoever for the freight railroads to make money on passenger trains. Starting in 1968, the Class I's began killing off the passenger trains, which is one of the reasons Amtrak was created.

There is a way today to make a profit on passenger rail, but that will require subidies from those entities who want and need that rail service. (There is a paradigm for minimizing those subsidies, but a lot of that stuff is proprietary, so I have to careful what I post.)

The Class I's, by the way, have no problem running corridor service passenger rail if they are paid for it, and BNSF actually uses Amtrak as a profit center. So there is hope.

[supercat]

There is a way today to make a profit on passenger rail, but that will require subidies from those entities who want and need that rail service.

Actually, I thought there were some passenger rail companies that were profitable. The tickets are very expensive, but the quality of service is unparalleled by any other non-oceanic mode of travel. The idea is that rather than paring service to the point that people will use the train as a means of getting from point A to point B, the companies enhance the service so that people enjoy the trip itself, rather than the fact that they eventually get to their destination.

[rasblue]

>The Class I's, by the way, have no problem running corridor >service passenger rail if they are paid for it, and BNSF >actually uses Amtrak as a profit center. So there is hope.

BNSF runs commuter trains in the Chicagoland area with success