Sorry about that!
ThisIf you look financially, this is the start of the golden age. Amtrak is in a better position to expand than it has *ever* been. Although there's some shuffling of report formats going on, it looks like Amtrak will run an operating profit in 2018; nearly all the individual trains are profitable before overhead; and this is happening while the capital backlog is possibly smaller than it's been since 1971 (it was monumental in 1971) and the high-interest-rate debt is gone. And, although I mention it often, more track is controlled by friendly entities than ever before.
But isn't population at its highest in America's history too? You should probably calculate per population and see if it compares to the 70's and 80's.And despite fare hikes, ridership is at its highest level in Amtrak's history. That's a good situation to be in.
Amtrak's 5 year budgetary plan does not get them to operational profitability in that period. It reduces the losses by another $150 million or so. They were a bit ahead of the plan in FY17. The plan is to get very close to that point by 2022, and if luck holds perhaps surpass it by then.I'm not quite convinced that Amtrak will manage an operating profit in FY18, but I suspect it'll be a close-run thing. We'll probably also have a good bump to ridership from the extra Cascades and Shuttles (though I have no idea what the timeline is on the Quad Cities service or extra Piedmonts is, while the timeline on an extra Lynchburger and the second Norfolk train are also up in the air). I think there's a good case we make it in the next few years, however...especially once the Acela IIs come online and once we get some Brightliners coming in.
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