What is amtrak

Show on map. Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. Amtrak believes that travel by train is the best way of visiting the USA. The company offers travel over more than 40 routes, the longest of which covers kilometres! The Polrail Service team are specialists in planning railway journeys, and as an agent for Amtrak we guarantee professional customer service in finding you the best railway connections and the lowest prices.

Amtrak is a registered service mark of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Our offers The Polrail Service Advantage. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Business Company Profiles. Table of Contents Expand. Amtrak's History. The Business Model. Future Plans. Key Challenges. Key Takeaways Amtrak is a state-owned enterprise. This means that Amtrak is a for-profit company, but that the federal government owns all its preferred stock. Amtrak provides rail service to over destinations in 46 states and three Canadian provinces.

Amtrak customers took That's 46, trips every day. Amtrak must keep its ticket prices low to compete with busses, air travel, and private cars. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work.

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Fuel shortages in the s increased costs for automobile and airline travel, which helped drive even more customers to Amtrak. Political battles over funding followed over the next decades. By , Amtrak faced a serious cash crisis.

George Warrington, the next leader of Amtrak, ran into trouble with Congress when his lavish spending and extensive borrowing resulted in him trying to mortgage Penn Station in New York. After this elicited a firestorm of controversy, Warrington was forced to step down.

Ridership increased again in the s after capital improvements were made to the Northeast Corridor, Amtrak set ridership records in seven of the last eight fiscal years. During FY , Amtrak reported more than Congress issued increased funding and instituted a new path to financial self-sufficiency, but these plans failed. As a result, Amtrak was not able to add enough revenue, or cut enough expenses, to break even. Although it was clear that Amtrak was unlikely to achieve financial self-sufficiency, Congress again approved funding in and released Amtrak from its requirement to become financially independent.

In May , President Barack Obama proposed placing Amtrak under federal agency budget—so that it receives funding under the Federal Railroad Administration—rather than continuing to depend on direct Congressional appropriations.

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak is responsible for operation and maintenance of a national rail network.

The agency serves more than destinations in 46 states on 21, miles of routes. Amtrak employs nearly 19, people and welcomed more than The next three routes also had ridership over a million each:. Amtrak owns 1, Amfleet, Superliner, Viewliner and other railroad passenger cars, locomotives, 80 Auto Train vehicle carriers and baggage cars. State-owned equipment includes railroad passenger cars and 22 locomotives.

Amtrak also owns property, including miles of the mile Northeast Corridor connecting Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as three heavy maintenance facilities in Wilmington and Bear, Delaware, and Beech Grove, Indiana, and other maintenance facilities in Washington D.

Host railroads also receive incentives for on-time dispatching. Fifteen states contract with Amtrak for operation of trains that supplement the national Amtrak network. State and regional agencies pay for most of these services and continued operation of these routes is subject to annual contracts and legislative appropriations.

These supplemental train routes include:. Several states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, make payments to Amtrak through transit agencies or state transportation departments for use of the Amtrak-owned Northeast Corridor facilities by commuter trains.

Amtrak operates more contract commuter services than any other company. Amtrak provides equipment maintenance services for the Sound Transit in Seattle, dispatching and maintenance of way service to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority and dispatching services for the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority's Tri-Rail operation.

The agency predicts a near-tripling of ridership and the creation of , jobs as a result of this project. Amtrak Reports. Amtrak Routes. Amtrak Stations. Amtrak Timetables. Facts and Services. National Fact Sheet. State Fact Sheets. News Releases. Service Alerts. Travel Planning.

As a federally funded corporation, National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak expenditures go toward costs associated with the operation of its passenger train system, and fall into one of three large categories: operating costs, capital, and debt service.

Also included was a request for funds to purchase 40 Acela Express coach cars to add capacity to the high-speed rail line from Washington to Boston, which would be ready to roll in In the past, Amtrak has purchased some of its passenger cars from Talgo , a Spanish manufacturer of railway cars.

Senator Charles Schumer of New York suggested the idea after it was learned al Qaeda was considering an attack on American trains. Amtrak officials said they were open to using a no-ride list to screen passengers. Amtrak was roundly criticized by congressional Republicans in for firing its longtime inspector general. Weiderhold was an Amtrak employee for 35 years, including 21 as its first inspector general.

Among the many problems that have plagued Amtrak, its board of presidential appointees has proved to be a source of plenty of bad publicity. Dominated by President George W. Amtrak supporters in Congress were outraged by the dismissal. Shortly before the firing, the Government Accountability Office issued a report that said Amtrak needed fundamental improvement in many areas, including cost control, goods and services purchasing, and overall accountability.

More than once, the board lacked a quorum, with only four of its seven seats filled. Also, according to Rep. Steven LaTourette R-Ohio , chairman of the railroad subcommittee of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, some directors had served without proper appointment as stated under a law meant to reform the railroad.

Finally, those appointed to the board had come under attack as cronies of President Bush. Wald, New York Times. Amtrak firing draws critics by Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Albany Times-Union. Alexander, Washington Post. SourceWatch: Donna R. Since that time, Amtrak has experienced multiple challenges related to this program and performance of the trains.

Bombardier and Alstom sued Amtrak in for withholding payments. In March , Amtrak and the two companies reached a negotiated settlement. But troubles continued for Amtrak as it was forced to remove all Acela trains from service in April until faulty brakes were replaced. The brake problem produced more acrimony between Amtrak and Bombardier over whether the warranty on the parts would cover the costs of replacing them.

Acela is back on the map for , as Amtrak has included in its budget a request for funds to purchase 40 Acela Express coach cars to add capacity to the high-speed rail line from Washington to Boston. Target date for the cars to become operational is Another effort to bring about high-speed rail also caused Amtrak considerable grief. In the late s, the federal railroad decided to team up with New York to bring faster train service between New York City and Albany.

Millions were spent to revamp existing trains with high-powered turbine engines instead of purchasing new locomotives.

After cost overruns and delays kept the trains from going into service, New York officials and Amtrak began pointing fingers at each other for the mess. Also, the study found Amtrak spends about two and a half times as much as restaurants to supply its trains, due to its need to store food and then move it on and off trains.

In , in an effort to save money, Amtrak laid off its commissary workers and hired a private contractor to provide its food and put it on trains. That contract, auditors concluded, was flawed because it gives the contractor no incentive to reduce costs. The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak in late lifted its ban on passengers bringing unloaded guns aboard trains, after congressional Republicans pushed for the change. The restriction was first put into place after the Sept.

Under the new policy, riders can check firearms, including handguns, rifles and shotguns, and up to 11 pounds of ammunition at any train station that offers checked baggage. Passengers are required to notify Amtrak at least 24 hours before their departure, and the gun must be stored unloaded in a locked, hard-sided container.

Wicker and the National Rifle Association argued the rule was not based on any facts, and that sportsmen, hunters and gun owners were treated unfairly by it. They also said it made no sense to ban guns from trains when airlines allow their passengers to check unloaded weapons before boarding.

Gun control advocates opposed the lifting of the restriction. They objected to the argument that just because airlines allow checked guns, so too should Amtrak. Vice and others noted that Amtrak does not screen all its passengers before they board trains. Richard H. Anderson was born May 2, , in Galveston, Texas, where his father, Hale Anderson, worked for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, and his mother, Frances, worked as a medical receptionist and typist.

The third of five children, Anderson moved with his family to Amarillo when he was in high school. After both his parents died of cancer when he was a freshman at Texas Tech University, Anderson moved to Texas City, Texas, near Houston, to care for his younger sisters.

Anderson earned a B. Anderson served as a prosecuting attorney for Harris County, Texas, from to After three years, Anderson along with Hirst took a job at Northwest Airlines, relocating to Minneapolis. Anderson worked for Northwest for 14 years. His job titles included vice president and deputy general counsel to ; senior vice president of labor relations, state affairs and law to ; senior vice president of technical operations and airport affairs January to April ; executive vice president of technical operations and airport affairs April to December ; executive vice president and chief operating officer December to April ; and chief executive officer April to October Anderson left the airline industry in October , leaving Northwest to become executive vice president of United Healthcare from November to August From to May 17, , he was a board member of Xcel Energy, the Minneapolis-based utility holding company.

Anderson engineered a merger between Delta and his former employer Northwest that proved financially successful and led to a wave of mergers and consolidation in the industry.

Department of Transportation. He has served as chairman of the Airlines for America board of directors, as well as the International Air Transport Association board of governors.

And, beginning in May , he has been board member of agribusiness giant Cargill. Over the years, Anderson has contributed to the campaign funds of both Republicans and Democrats, particularly to those on Congressional committees that oversee the airline and healthcare industries. Delta Bio. Anderson Bloomberg.

Charles W. Moorman was born in in New Orleans, where his father was attending Tulane University. His family moved to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, shortly thereafter, where the elder Moorman taught English at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Moorman grew up there, except for a period during which his father taught in London. Moorman attended Georgia Tech, earning a B.

But even before then, he was working for the railroad. He began with the Southern Railway in in a co-operative education program.

When he graduated from Georgia Tech, he became a management trainee for Southern, moving up through the ranks to become a track supervisor and division engineer. In , Southern offered buyouts to some of its engineering personnel.

Moorman, who had wanted to return to school to earn an MBA, took one and went to Harvard. He graduated in and applied to return to Southern. The railroad took him back as its director of transportation planning. In , after Southern merged with Norfolk and Western to become Norfolk Southern, Moorman was named assistant vice president of stations, terminals and transportation planning. He continued to climb the corporate ladder and in was named senior vice president of corporate services and later that year was made senior vice president for corporate planning and services.

He retired from Norfolk Southern in , after which the railroad named its largest train classification yard, in Bellevue, Ohio, after him. He also serves on the boards of oil giant Chevron and Duke Energy.

As one might expect of a train enthusiast, Moorman has his own train, or at least a train car. Moorman and his wife, Bonnie, have two grown children, a son and a daughter. Moorman was a donor to Barack Obama in the election, but in threw his support to Mitt Romney. Official Biography. Main Menu. Back to Departments Back to Independent Agencies. National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak.

Overview: The National Railroad Passenger Corporation Amtrak is a government-owned corporation established in to provide intercity passenger train service throughout the United States. History: Between and , private passenger rail services in the United States were in an advanced state of decline.