^{Wealth & Poverty Review} The Failure of Subsidizing AMTRAK and How to Make Passenger Trains Profitable Again

A message from Bruce Chapman, Founder and Chairman of the Board of Discovery Institute:

Discovery Institute has promoted private passenger rail for decades now. I had the honor of serving as a citizen member on the Amtrak Reform Council (ARC) in the George W. Bush days. We are about to issue our own paper on how times have changed enough that private options — in passenger rail operations, if not in rail infrastructure — are now possible politically and economically. When airlines are filling to capacity and new freeways are immensely difficult to build, there is a space in the transportation field for added passenger rail traffic — if the private sector is involved and if government white elephants like the California “high speed” route from San Francisco to Los Angeles — the railroad to nowhere — are avoided.

Meanwhile, we are publishing this paper volunteered by J.D. Wong, a Georgia businessman, that makes a strong, well-researched case that government subsidies for Amtrak should be terminated. In his opinion, only a couple of long distance train routes are potentially sustainable, and that a reliance on standard rail cars, rather than sleeper cars, is a business mistake that mainly reflects political influence.

We are not endorsing Mr. Wong’s paper, but it deserves consideration. We are about to publish our own plan. Regardless, the facts Mr. Wong presents are perhaps the most important contribution he brings to the incipient debate. Let’s face it, Congress has let the current program function with only modest reforms since the ARC report. It is time to think anew.

J.D. Wong was the co-owner and vice president of a small regional intercity bus company. He is an expert on the transportation industry, particularly the Amtrak system.