Alaska's Railroad Has Little In Common With Amtrak

"After riding the train from the downtown depot to the airport depot (a scenery-packed trip that took 21 minutes), Mineta praised Alaska's privately operated railroad as a subsidy-free model for the rest of the country. He called Amtrak a 'dysfunctional monopoly' in need of reform, and he hailed the Alaska Railroad as a prototype for inter-city rail travel in the rest of the country....But mostly the Alaska Railroad hauls freight. Of the $129.5 million in revenue the railroad pulled in last year, $89.5 million came from freight. That's why touting the Alaska Railroad as a model for Amtrak isn't fair."