Founded 55 years ago, Amtrak set out with a bold mission to revive passenger rail. Fast forward to today, and this experiment has failed. Politicians have often designed routes to win votes rather than attract riders. As a result, Amtrak has misspent taxpayer money since 1971.

Take, for instance, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021. It allocated a monumental $66 billion in subsidies to bolster passenger rail. Despite this support, Amtrak's losses grew from $1.12 billion in FY2019 to $2.09 billion in FY2025.

Amtrak’s last annual report showed a $661.7 million loss, but left out four costs:

$1.05 billion in depreciation,

$364.2 million in Project-Related Expenses,

$328.1 million in state subsidies, and

$28.1 million in funding for the Office of Inspector General.

Much of that loss stems from routes operating over Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern tracks. These routes cause about 58 percent of Amtrak's avoidable losses, combined.

Instead of throwing good money after bad, the Surface Transportation Board (STB) should try a different approach. It should make unsubsidized passenger rail a condition of the pending merger between Union Pacific and Norfolk Southern.

Here's how. Union Pacific would operate two all-sleeping-car routes, each departing every 72 hours. One route would connect Hoboken with Los Angeles via Denver and Las Vegas. Another would travel between Seattle and Los Angeles. Each train would comprise 16 Superliner cars: 14 sleeping cars, one dining car, and one lounge car. With a capacity of 582 passengers, a 65 percent load factor, and an average yield of $0.39 per passenger per mile, both routes could operate at a profit without a single dollar of........

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