Title: Privatizing Amtrak | Downsizing the Federal Government
Headings: Privatizing Amtrak
Privatizing Amtrak
Amtrak's Failures
Advantages of Privatization
Notes:

Content: Over the years, federal auditors have charged Amtrak with a lack of strategic planning, inefficient procurement policies, weak financial management, and insufficient accountability. 10 Auditors found that the company manipulated its financial statements to obscure unfavorable data. 11 And the company has a history of hiding information from investigators and presenting unrealistic projections to Congress. 12
However, most of Amtrak's problems are created by Congress, which prevents the company from making rational business decisions. In particular, Congress insists on supporting an excessively large nationwide system of passenger rail that does not make economic sense. Nor does it make environmental sense for Amtrak to run routes with low ridership. In his 2004 book, End of the Line, rail expert and former Amtrak spokesman Joseph Vranich argued, "congressional requirements that Amtrak spend money on capital improvements to lightly used routes are outrageous. ... Throughout Amtrak's history, it has devoted too much of its budget to where it is not needed, and not enough to where it is." 13
Amtrak operates 44 routes on 21,000 miles of track in 46 states. Amtrak owns the trains, but freight rail companies own about 95 percent of the track.