Life Imitates Art at Amtrak

Turns out Ayn Rand was right on the money.

In her novel, Taggart Transcontinental Railroad ran nearly empty trains on rural routes as a matter of "public equality." If one state had trains then, by gosh, another had to have them, too, no matter how much money they lost. Today, Amtrak runs trains like the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Los Angeles whose financial loss is so great that it requires a federal subsidy of $420 per passenger. It's cheaper for taxpayers to buy airline tickets and give them to these Amtrak passengers than to preserve the train.