Amtrak has lost money every year since 1971— here's why train tickets are so expensive
Following is a transcript of the video.Amtrak is the only passenger railroad service that operates throughout the continental US. With about 500 destinations, the service has been operating since 1971. But with high ticket costs, Amtrak is becoming a less viable mode of transportation.
Amtrak has had a long history of financial instability since its formation. Passenger trains used to be owned by private companies that operated freight trains. At the start of the 20th century, nearly 42 million passengers traveled by rail as their primary mode of transportation. However, by the 1940s, railroads began to become less popular as buses, planes, and cars grew in popularity.
Throughout the early 2000s, the US government attempted to make Amtrak financially self-sufficient by trying to increase ridership and implement the Acela Express, which runs at a maximum speed of 150 mph. But their plans failed, as Amtrak still had a large sum of debt from years of underfunding. Additionally, the USA is a very big country. It's the fourth-largest country, with about 3.8 million square miles of land. In comparison to Japan, which is smaller than the state of California, the US requires a lot more rail to cover its land. Amtrak trains run on 21,400 miles of track, and only owns about 630 miles of it. For example, between New Rochelle and New Haven on the Boston-New York route, the tracks are owned and operated by Metro-North Railroad.
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