On track with trains.

• Author: Husch, Ben
• Position: TRENDS - State finance of passenger rail services

The federal government created Amtrak in 1971 to resurrect passenger rail service--once the nation's primary mode of long-distance travel. Although Amtrak has yet to turn an annual profit and has required continual federal subsidies, the government and many states continue to find value in passenger rail transportation.

To help Amtrak financially, the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008 (PRIIA) required states to share costs for intercity routes of less than 750 miles, which 19 states now do.

Congress and the states are grappling with how to balance funding popular passenger rail service in high-density areas while supporting long-distance routes that are not as cost-effective. Last year, Amtrak's ridership grew 0.2 percent to 30.92 million riders and revenue rose 4 percent to a record $2.19 billion. In the Northeast, ridership grew 3.3 percent to a record 11.6 million passengers and revenue was up 8.2 percent. In 2013, the Northeast was responsible for almost 38 percent of total Amtrak ridership and 54 percent of its revenue.

On the flip side, its national long-distance network saw a 4.5 percent decline in riders and a 2.9 percent decline in revenue.

Given PRIIA's expectation that states will help fund and maintain passenger rail, legislatures and transportation departments are using a variety of approaches to ensure a high-quality passenger rail service. New York, for example, has agreed to pay the $22 million difference between revenues and costs for four Amtrak lines that cross the state.

In the Pacific Northwest, Amtrak's Cascades carried more than 800,000 passengers in 2013 on a route linking Portland, Ore., Seattle, Wash., and Vancouver, British Columbia. The Washington Legislature appropriated $40...