The Past and Future of U.S. Passenger Rail Service

Abstract

This study reviews Amtrak's history and the economics of passenger rail. It also examines four options for the future of intercity passenger rail: (1) Eliminating federal subsidies and shutting down service; (2) Ending national service and focusing instead on passenger rail's strongest areas (relatively short, densely populated corridors, such as the Northeast and parts of California); (3) Keeping national long-distance service as it is today but upgrading the corridors; and (4) Substantially improving Amtrak's entire network through a major increase in funding, with a view to giving rail a much bigger role in transportation between U.S. cities. Those four options are by no means the only ones available, but they represent the broad range of policy choices that lawmakers face.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA418040

Entities

Organizations

  • Congressional Budget Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Aircrafts
  • Business Administration
  • Commerce
  • Commercial Aircraft
  • Congress
  • Economics
  • Feasibility Studies
  • Governments
  • Investments
  • Land Transportation
  • Law
  • Maglev
  • Money
  • Rail Transportation
  • Surface Transportation
  • United States

Readers

  • Economics
  • Maritime Security/Maritime Homeland Security