Measure ad performance. Select basic ads. Create a personalised ads profile. Select personalised ads. Apply market research to generate audience insights. Measure content performance. Develop and improve products. List of Partners vendors. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Business Company Profiles. Table of Contents Expand. Amtrak's History. The Business Model.
Future Plans. Key Challenges. Key Takeaways Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock.
Amtrak provides rail service to over destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces. Amtrak customers took That's 46, trips every day. Amtrak must keep its ticket prices low to compete with busses, air travel, and private cars. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work. These include white papers, government data, original reporting, and interviews with industry experts.
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Amtrak employs nearly 19, people and welcomed more than The next three routes also had ridership over a million each:. Amtrak owns 1, Amfleet, Superliner, Viewliner and other railroad passenger cars, locomotives, 80 Auto Train vehicle carriers and baggage cars.
State-owned equipment includes railroad passenger cars and 22 locomotives. Amtrak also owns property, including miles of the mile Northeast Corridor connecting Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as three heavy maintenance facilities in Wilmington and Bear, Delaware, and Beech Grove, Indiana, and other maintenance facilities in Washington D. Host railroads also receive incentives for on-time dispatching.
Fifteen states contract with Amtrak for operation of trains that supplement the national Amtrak network. State and regional agencies pay for most of these services and continued operation of these routes is subject to annual contracts and legislative appropriations. These supplemental train routes include:. Several states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, make payments to Amtrak through transit agencies or state transportation departments for use of the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor facilities by commuter trains.
Amtrak operates more contract commuter services than any other company. Amtrak provides equipment maintenance services for the Sound Transit in Seattle, dispatching and maintenance of way service to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and dispatching services for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority's Tri-Rail operation. The agency predicts a near-tripling of ridership and the creation of , jobs as a result of this project. Amtrak Reports. Amtrak Routes. Amtrak Stations. Amtrak Timetables.
Facts and Services. National Fact Sheet. State Fact Sheets. News Releases. Service Alerts. Travel Planning. As a federally funded corporation, National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak expenditures go toward costs associated with the operation of its passenger train system, and fall into one of three large categories: operating costs, capital, and debt service.
Also included was a request for funds to purchase 40 Acela Express coach cars to add capacity to the high-speed rail line from Washington to Boston, which would be ready to roll in In the past, Amtrak has purchased some of its passenger cars from Talgo , a Spanish manufacturer of railway cars. Senator Charles Schumer of New York suggested the idea after it was learned al Qaeda was considering an attack on American trains.
Amtrak officials said they were open to using a no-ride list to screen passengers. Amtrak was roundly criticized by congressional Republicans in for firing its longtime inspector general. Weiderhold was an Amtrak employee for 35 years, including 21 as its first inspector general. Among the many problems that have plagued Amtrak, its board of presidential appointees has proved to be a source of plenty of bad publicity.
Dominated by President George W. Amtrak supporters in Congress were outraged by the dismissal. Shortly before the firing, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that said Amtrak needed fundamental improvement in many areas, including cost control, goods and services purchasing, and overall accountability. More than once, the board lacked a quorum, with only four of its seven seats filled.
Also, according to Rep. Steven LaTourette R-Ohio , chairman of the railroad subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, some directors had served without proper appointment as stated under a law meant to reform the railroad. Finally, those appointed to the board had come under attack as cronies of President Bush. Wald, New York Times.
Amtrak firing draws critics by Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Albany Times-Union. Alexander, Washington Post. SourceWatch: Donna R. Since that time, Amtrak has experienced multiple challenges related to this program and performance of the trains.
Bombardier and Alstom sued Amtrak in for withholding payments. In March , Amtrak and the two companies reached a negotiated settlement. But troubles continued for Amtrak as it was forced to remove all Acela trains from service in April until faulty brakes were replaced. The brake problem produced more acrimony between Amtrak and Bombardier over whether the warranty on the parts would cover the costs of replacing them. Acela is back on the map for , as Amtrak has included in its budget a request for funds to purchase 40 Acela Express coach cars to add capacity to the high-speed rail line from Washington to Boston.
Target date for the cars to become operational is Another effort to bring about high-speed rail also caused Amtrak considerable grief. In the late s, the federal railroad decided to team up with New York to bring faster train service between New York City and Albany.
Millions were spent to revamp existing trains with high-powered turbine engines instead of purchasing new locomotives. After cost overruns and delays kept the trains from going into service, New York officials and Amtrak began pointing fingers at each other for the mess. Also, the study found Amtrak spends about two and a half times as much as restaurants to supply its trains, due to its need to store food and then move it on and off trains.
In , in an effort to save money, Amtrak laid off its commissary workers and hired a private contractor to provide its food and put it on trains. That contract, auditors concluded, was flawed because it gives the contractor no incentive to reduce costs. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak in late lifted its ban on passengers bringing unloaded guns aboard trains, after congressional Republicans pushed for the change. The restriction was first put into place after the Sept.
Under the new policy, riders can check firearms, including handguns, rifles and shotguns, and up to 11 pounds of ammunition at any train station that offers checked baggage. Passengers are required to notify Amtrak at least 24 hours before their departure, and the gun must be stored unloaded in a locked, hard-sided container.
Wicker and the National Rifle Association argued the rule was not based on any facts, and that sportsmen, hunters and gun owners were treated unfairly by it.
They also said it made no sense to ban guns from trains when airlines allow their passengers to check unloaded weapons before boarding. Gun control advocates opposed the lifting of the restriction. They objected to the argument that just because airlines allow checked guns, so too should Amtrak. Vice and others noted that Amtrak does not screen all its passengers before they board trains. Richard H. Anderson was born May 2, , in Galveston, Texas, where his father, Hale Anderson, worked for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and his mother, Frances, worked as a medical receptionist and typist.
The third of five children, Anderson moved with his family to Amarillo when he was in high school. After both his parents died of cancer when he was a freshman at Texas Tech University, Anderson moved to Texas City, Texas, near Houston, to care for his younger sisters.
Anderson earned a B. Anderson served as a prosecuting attorney for Harris County, Texas, from to After three years, Anderson along with Hirst took a job at Northwest Airlines, relocating to Minneapolis. Anderson worked for Northwest for 14 years.
His job titles included vice president and deputy general counsel to ; senior vice president of labor relations, state affairs and law to ; senior vice president of technical operations and airport affairs January to April ; executive vice president of technical operations and airport affairs April to December ; executive vice president and chief operating officer December to April ; and chief executive officer April to October Anderson left the airline industry in October , leaving Northwest to become executive vice president of United Healthcare from November to August From to May 17, , he was a board member of Xcel Energy, the Minneapolis-based utility holding company.
Anderson engineered a merger between Delta and his former employer Northwest that proved financially successful and led to a wave of mergers and consolidation in the industry. Department of Transportation. He has served as chairman of the Airlines for America board of directors, as well as the International Air Transport Association board of governors. And, beginning in May , he has been board member of agribusiness giant Cargill. Over the years, Anderson has contributed to the campaign funds of both Republicans and Democrats, particularly to those on Congressional committees that oversee the airline and healthcare industries.
Delta Bio. Anderson Bloomberg. Charles W. Moorman was born in in New Orleans, where his father was attending Tulane University. His family moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, shortly thereafter, where the elder Moorman taught English at the University of Southern Mississippi. Moorman grew up there, except for a period during which his father taught in London. Moorman attended Georgia Tech, earning a B.
But even before then, he was working for the railroad. He began with the Southern Railway in in a co-operative education program. When he graduated from Georgia Tech, he became a management trainee for Southern, moving up through the ranks to become a track supervisor and division engineer.
In , Southern offered buyouts to some of its engineering personnel. Moorman, who had wanted to return to school to earn an MBA, took one and went to Harvard. He graduated in and applied to return to Southern. The railroad took him back as its director of transportation planning. In , after Southern merged with Norfolk and Western to become Norfolk Southern, Moorman was named assistant vice president of stations, terminals and transportation planning.
He continued to climb the corporate ladder and in was named senior vice president of corporate services and later that year was made senior vice president for corporate planning and services. He retired from Norfolk Southern in , after which the railroad named its largest train classification yard, in Bellevue, Ohio, after him.
He also serves on the boards of oil giant Chevron and Duke Energy. As one might expect of a train enthusiast, Moorman has his own train, or at least a train car. Moorman and his wife, Bonnie, have two grown children, a son and a daughter. Moorman was a donor to Barack Obama in the election, but in threw his support to Mitt Romney.
Official Biography. Main Menu. Back to Departments Back to Independent Agencies. National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak. Overview: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak is a government-owned corporation established in to provide intercity passenger train service throughout the United States. History: Between and , private passenger rail services in the United States were in an advanced state of decline. The law provided as follows: Any intercity passenger service currently operating could contract with the NRPC and join the national system.
These railroads bought into the national system based on recent losses. The purchase price could be satisfied with cash or rolling stock. In exchange, the railroads received NRPC common stock. Participating railroads were freed of the obligation to operate intercity passenger service after May 1, Some chosen by the Department of Transportation maintained basic systems of service that were paid for by NRPC with federal funds.
Any railroads choosing not to join the NRPC system were required to continue their existing passenger service until and then had to pursue the regular ICC approval process for any discontinuance or alteration of the service.
What it Does: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak is responsible for operation and maintenance of a national rail network. Where Does the Money Go: As a federally funded corporation, National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak expenditures go toward costs associated with the operation of its passenger train system, and fall into one of three large categories: operating costs, capital, and debt service.
Debate: Allow Guns on Amtrak Trains? Con Gun control advocates opposed the lifting of the restriction. See all 37 comments Comments Scott Bryan 2 years ago.
I agree that AMTRAK should be free to change its policy so that newly earned rewards points expire after just two years, but I believe it is both unfair and unwise to expire previously earned points prematurely. Railroads faced large tax, regulatory, and union burdens not faced by other modes of transportation.
After a number of major railroads went bankrupt, Congress took over passenger rail in with the creation Amtrak. Amtrak is structured like a corporation, but the government owns virtually all the stock.
It seems unlikely that passenger rail will play a large role in America's transportation future. Rail carries few people compared with automobiles and airplanes, and it makes little economic sense for most intercity trips.
However, privatizing Amtrak would allow entrepreneurs to innovate and make rail more competitive and financially viable.
Congress should get out of the passenger rail business and give rail the private-sector flexibility it needs to better compete against other modes of transportation. Amtrak has many woes. Its quality of service is mediocre and its trains are often late. For the overall system, only about three-quarters of Amtrak's trains are on time, with its long-distance routes having a particularly bad record. Amtrak has an expensive and inflexible workforce. They resist innovation and create a bureaucratic workplace.
Former Amtrak head David Gunn complained that at Amtrak's maintenance facilities, workers from different unions were not allowed to share work on projects outside their narrowly designated specialties. With late trains and endless losses, Amtrak's management has been subject to much criticism.
Over the years, federal auditors have charged Amtrak with a lack of strategic planning, inefficient procurement policies, weak financial management, and insufficient accountability. However, most of Amtrak's problems are created by Congress, which prevents the company from making rational business decisions.
In particular, Congress insists on supporting an excessively large nationwide system of passenger rail that does not make economic sense. Nor does it make environmental sense for Amtrak to run routes with low ridership. In his book, End of the Line , rail expert and former Amtrak spokesman Joseph Vranich argued, "congressional requirements that Amtrak spend money on capital improvements to lightly used routes are outrageous.
Throughout Amtrak's history, it has devoted too much of its budget to where it is not needed, and not enough to where it is. Amtrak operates 44 routes on 21, miles of track in 46 states. Amtrak owns the trains, but freight rail companies own about 95 percent of the track. The few routes that earn a positive return are in the Northeast, whereas the biggest money losers are the long-distance routes, such as New Orleans to Los Angeles.
The Government Accountability Office found that the long-distance routes account for 15 percent of Amtrak riders but 80 percent of its financial losses. Privatization would increase rail efficiency and reduce costs. A private rail company could prune excess workers, base worker pay on performance, and end harmful union rules.
It would be able to close the routes that are losing the most money. Passenger rail makes sense in the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, D. Other routes may also make sense within a lower-cost privatized system. A privatized Amtrak could close the most uneconomic routes and shift investment and maintenance dollars to the core routes to improve service quality. Reforms abroad show that privatizing passenger rail works. In his book, Vranich counted dozens of nations that had either partly or fully privatized their passenger rail systems.
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