I’m worried about the profit too. I’m living in Baltimore but working in DC for 10 years. MARC train is good enough and it’s only $8 with about an hour ride. It’s cheaper if you buy monthly ticket. However, just about two years ago, MARC added weekend services with the same price as weekday ticket which normally, the Amtrak charges about $20 for a trip to Washington and a lot more for weekend. I noticed a lot more people travel to Baltimore than before since MARC added the weekend service. For example, Baltimore’s annual Artscape drew a record breaking attendees comparing to the previous years. So train system indeed help local business a lot. It also promotes tourism.
Low cost flights are good and take shorter time but I really prefer train. It’s more relaxing. It doesn’t have too many restriction that Airlines have. Profit depends on how you manage it. I really think the reason that Amtrak is losing money because the service is not reliable so it’s not really save time for passengers to travel. The train ticket from Washington to NYC is $68 for 3-4 hours ride while Boltbus or Megabus will cost you only $15-20 for 4-5 hours. I would ride a bus unless I have no choice. But if you have a train which will take you from DC to NYC in less than an hour with a reasonable price, I am sure they will do very well. I will definitely pay more for 3 hours time saving. We can do like in Japan where train station is like a shopping mall. This way the government can keep the price down because they make much more money from local vendors. I have to say though, one thing about USA that make it difficult for the train system to succeed like in Japan or in Europe, is because our own problem (dangerous inner cities). However, good public transportation system can make up for it and eventually will help the cities and local businesses.