Despite record ridership, Amtrak still losing money

Amtrak, the U.S. passenger-rail service, thinks it's on the right track even though it's still losing money.

The railroad says it is riding higher, illustrated by the hundreds of thousands of additional passengers flocking to expanded routes in urban corridors, especially in California and Illinois.

Amtrak anticipates its fifth straight record year for ridership nationwide, helped by high gasoline prices and congested highways and airports that seem to have encouraged people to keep their vehicles parked.

But Amtrak's headaches remain, and the biggest is funding. The service has never been out of the red since its launch in 1971, meaning it must rely on government subsidies year after year.

In trying to hash out the federal budget for next year, Congress is weighing how much U.S. taxpayers should underwrite the passenger service. Amtrak has requested $1.53 billion, nearly twice the amount the Bush administration wants to give it. In the past, Bush has proposed giving the service nothing.

Amtrak says the lack of stable funding holds it back, leaving it unable to commit to infrastructure improvements. It still uses some equipment dating back half a century and cannot add new rail cars it says it can easily fill on some routes.

The service also continues to be nagged by travel delays, mostly because it must share the tracks with freight haulers that own the rails and charge Amtrak a fee — $90 million in the last fiscal year — for using them.

With freight traffic soaring in recent years, Amtrak's on-time performance slid to an average of 68 percent last year, its worst showing since the 1970s.

Since taking over as Amtrak's president last September, Alex Kummant repeatedly has said the U.S. should embrace rail travel at a time of growing transportation needs and high oil prices.

But Amtrak has more than $3.3 billion in debt — largely tied to equipment leases. Amtrak's operating losses for 2005 topped $550 million, and its struggles along certain routes continue.

The haggling over funding comes as Amtrak's ridership flourishes. Passengers for the fiscal year that ended last September numbered 24.3 million, setting a record for the fourth year in a row when comparing the same routes along the 21,000-mile system serving 500 stations in 46 states and Washington, D.C.