Amtrak Accounting.

• Author: Lynch, Michael W.
• Position: Brief Article

For private businesses, being self-sufficient means covering all your costs. For Amtrak, recipient of more than $23 billion in subsidies since 1971, it means covering any of its costs. Certain incidentals don't count as legitimate expenses--like maintenance of locomotives and passenger cars, depreciation on this equipment, and employees' retirement plans. Or so say Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater, Amtrak Chairman Tommy Thompson (who moonlights as the welfare-slashing governor of Wisconsin), and some of the senators who oversee Amtrak's government-granted monopoly.

In late January, the Amtrak Reform Council, established a few years ago to help Amtrak locomote entirely on its own steam, released a report projecting operating losses of $567 million in 2002. Under a 1997 law, Amtrak must develop a plan to privatize itself-"complete liquidation" is the exact legislative language--if it is unable to cover its costs by the end of that fiscal year.

The Reform Council report didn't start the dreaded privatization process, but Amtrak, and interest...