LogFAQs > #876664362

Amtrak’s largest expense is labor, salary, and benefits, which cost over $2 billion in 2014. Maintaining fully-staffed trains on infrequently-traveled routes has contributed to high labor costs, but the pay rate of Amtrak’s employees raise its costs substantially. The average onboard employee made $41.19 an hour on Amtrak in 2012, while railroads that contracted out services to private companies paid their employees $7.75 to $13.00 an hour.

From: https://economics21.org/html/amtrak-bill-continues-history-wasted-subsidies-1263.html

Also-
The railroad’s food and beverage service has been singled out in recent years by both government watchdogs and Congress for its wasteful use of government subsidies. Amtrak lost over $900 million from 2003 to 2013 on food services alone.


I'm not saying we don't need Amtrak. And with the first point I don't think railroad conductors should make minimum wage by a longshot. But when you are running lines that few people take that loses the company money, and the profits from the lines that are widely used aren't enough to cover that.

They need better management.