Amtrak's Banner Year: Even as ridership increases, it still can't cut its losses.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Amtrak announced last week to great media fanfare that the national train service carried a record 30 million passengers last year. A banner year on its 40th anniversary of government ownership, right? Well, no.

Here's what Amtrak didn't trumpet: It lost a near-record amount of money in fiscal 2011, with some $560 million from the feds required to cover its operating deficit.

This isn't an operation that can make up losses with greater volume. The curse of Amtrak is that its operating costs are so high on most routes, and its fares so inadequate to cover those costs, that even as more people hop on board it still can't cut its losses. It currently loses about $54.50 per passenger, and the Sunset Limited line between New Orleans and Los Angeles loses $390 per ticket, according to the House Transportation Committee. Since Richard Nixon nationalized passenger rail service in 1971, Amtrak hasn't made money in a single year.

What a scam.