Taxpayer-supported Amtrak loses money but pays some executives over $700,000 salaries

Amtrak executives are riding a gravy train with some of them making as much as $780,000 a year while train system’s passengers endure delayed and disrupted services, a new report revealed.

The top 10 executives make between $504,000 and $780,000, according to an audit done by the government spending watchdog Open the Books. Amtrak, whose payroll is taxpayer-funded, only released a portion of its payroll information. The salaries of 19,000 other employees were not disclosed due to a Freedom of Information Act exemption that allows the government to withhold workers’ personal information.

Calculations done by the watchdog group pegged those employees’ annual salaries at an average of $121,000.

“No wonder the prices have gone up,” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, West Virginia Republican, told The Washington Times when she learned about the big salaries.

The Times reached out to Amtrak for comment.

Amtrak is a government-subsidized corporation that runs the national passenger train service in the U.S. The company received $6.6 billion from the Federal Railroad Administration last year and another $6.8 billion this fiscal year. In 2020, when ridership was down 90% due to the pandemic, it received $1 billion from the CARES Act and another $1.7 billion in 2021 from the American Rescue Plan.

Even with all that money, there are still widespread complaints about the train service. Signal problems, mechanical snafus and computer breakdowns are seen across the country. Slow and delayed trains have plagued the Northeast since the summer, with the blame being put on the heat, aging train fleet and track work.

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the chair of the House Republican Conference, last month sent a letter to Amtrak and the Canadian National Railway demanding answers about service disruption on the Adirondack Line that runs from New York City to Montreal. For three years, the line didn’t have summer service, and after resuming in April of this year, elevated temperatures caused parts of the line to be shut down for another 79 days in June.

“Both Amtrak and CN had over three years of stopped service time to address any concerns they may have had with the railroad infrastructure,” Ms. Stefanik wrote.

The company was on track to make a profit for the first time in roughly 50 years before the pandemic shut things down. Now, Amtrak continues to rack up big losses that are mostly covered by taxpayers.

“Despite being heavily subsidized, Amtrak projects it will lose roughly $1 billion every year and has never in its history turned a profit,” said Open the Books Founder and CEO Adam Andrzejewski.

Some Amtrak routes cost the company more money than a ticket would cost to ride them. According to the report, high-speed Acela service that runs from Washington to Boston has gone from making the company money to losing $2 per mile. The Sunset Limited that runs from New Orleans to Los Angeles loses $566 per passenger. Another route, from Los Angeles to Chicago, loses $288 per passenger.

Rep. Troy Nehls, chairman of the House Transportation Committee panel on railroads, said at a recent hearing that the railroad company needs a better business strategy.

“Amtrak’s losses arise almost entirely from its National Network and long-distance routes,” said Mr. Nehls, Texas Republican. “Rather than focusing on attracting riders to existing routes, Amtrak now seeks to expand this network, risking a greater expense to the taxpayer.”