Amtrak Lost More Than $800 Million on Food

"It costs passengers $9.50 to buy a cheeseburger on Amtrak, but the cost to taxpayers is $16.15."

Taxpayers lost $833 million over the last decade on the food and beverages supplied by Amtrak, which managed to spend $1.70 for every dollar that received in revenue.

"Over the last ten years, these losses have amounted to a staggering $833.8 million," said Rep.John Mica, R-Fla., in a statement previewing a House hearing today.  "It costs passengers $9.50 to buy a cheeseburger on Amtrak, but the cost to taxpayers is $16.15.  Riders pay $2.00 for a Pepsi, but each of these sodas costs the U.S. Treasury $3.40."

Comments

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

Taxpayers lost $833 million over the last decade on the food and beverages supplied by Amtrak, which managed to spend $1.70 for every dollar that received in revenue.

I believe it. I took a Business Class train ride up to Providence and back a couple months ago and the track was so rough (especially on the way back to Richmond) that I was hitting the free Ginger Ales pretty hard trying to keep my stomach settled. I was going there a lot. Both ways, when we were anywhere near NYC and DC, the seats at the table of the dining car were full of people who had gotten some token item to keep from getting booted from the tables.

[Suthenboy]

Brilliant idea for infrastructure development....we should build more! High speed no less!

[freeAgent]

This is a pretty impressive level of incompetence. It's also amazing that they can lose almost $70k per employee.