Should Rail Transit Be A Business?

"Amtrak's budget is $540 million per year, so Congress's airline bailout would represent almost 30 years of Amtrak's budget at the current rate. What is disjointed is that Congress thinks aviation needs large amounts of federal assistance and still feels that Amtrak is an unnecessary boondoggle based on nostalgia. A number of [congressional] critics of rail argue that it's a mode of transport whose time has passed, that it's like trying to maintain a horse drawn carriage industry. That criticism flies in the face of almost every industrialized country's experience with high speed rail. "

Thanks to The Practice of New Urbanism