Pew Research released results of a study of Amtrak’s profitability. Or, should we say unprofitably. The national passenger rail line lost between $5 to $462 per passenger depending upon the line. Smaller airlines and airport lose even more.
The average loss per passenger on Amtrak’s 44 nationwide routes was more than $32 in FY2008, according to analysis released today by Pew’s Subsidyscope project. This is four times higher than the loss of $8 per passenger, which was calculated using Amtrak’s own figures. Further, 41 of Amtrak’s 44 lines lost money, between $5 and $462 per passenger depending on the route. Amtrak received $1.3 billion in direct payments from the federal government in FY2008.
Amtrak’s line with the highest per passenger subsidy — the Sunset Limited, which runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles — carried just 72,000 passengers in FY2008, at a cost to the federal government of $462 per passenger. The California Zephyr, which runs from Chicago to San Francisco, had the second highest per passenger subsidy of $192. It carried nearly 353,000 passengers in FY2008.
The Pew Research subsidiary, Subsidyscope, calculated its figures on Amtrak profits and losses route-by-route. Amtrak’s figures showing only an $8 loss did not include depreciation and overhead. When Subsidyscope added in normal issues like depreciation and overhead, losses ballooned dramatically.
Though these figures show dramatic losses and a big subsidy from the government, subsidies for airlines and highways are far larger. If those infrastructure figures were included in other transportation profit and loss statements, they would also show dramatic losses.
A recent study conducted by USAToday showed high subsidies of many smaller airports and smaller airlines that do not make their way into our transportation profit and loss statements.
The latest Essential Air Service program appropriations amounted to $175 million, a 28 percent increase. This program subsidizes rural airports to guarantee airline service.
Ely, in Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s state, leads the pack with a $4,500 per passenger subsidy, according to new data from the Senate Appropriations Committee. Just 414 people flew out of Ely last year. That’s 0.7 passengers per flight, which means that some planes fly empty of passengers.
For Havre, Mont., each of its 359 passengers — 0.6 passengers per flight — received an almost $2,900 subsidy. Double it for a round trip ticket.
Bottom line, there are lots of government subsidies and those subsidies, at least in the railroad world, are going to see increases. The so-called high-speed-rail initiative (actually relatively slow-speed) will boost spending for rail projects. However, in reality, that spending will be focused on connecting major cities, track improvements and signal upgrades rather than actually creating modern bullet trains.
However, even FAA officials, normally focused only on air transportation, agree that the nation needs an intermodal system of transportation that allows rail and air to work together far more closely than in the past.
