Infrastructure Summer: Amtrak Victorious

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Infrastructure Summer: Amtrak Victorious

The much-maligned rail operator gets some respect and more than a few billion in banknotes out of the bruising infrastructure battle.

BY GABRIELLE GURLEY AUGUST 9, 2021



An Amtrak Northeast Regional train slows for a stop at the Metropark Station in Iselin, New Jersey, on November 25, 2019.

Providing quality rail service to major metro areas and a measure of mobility for those in remote areas should not be controversial. But like vaccinations against an often fatal disease and teaching American history, dependable passenger rail service has been treated like a stain on what remains of the nation’s experiment with representative democracy.

Yet with the bipartisan infrastructure package, which cleared a key cloture vote over the weekend, Amtrak riders are big winners. The beleaguered rail operator scored $66 billion in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). After years of legislative chaos on the infrastructure front, nothing is certain. But if the bill passes, Amtrak will get some stability that adds up to a vote of confidence.

In fiscal 2019, Amtrak passengers made 32.5 million trips across the entire national network. More than half of them (18.8 million) were along the Northeast Corridor (NEC) between Boston and Washington. If those trips were instead made on Interstate 95, the often-gridlocked north-south thoroughfare on the East Coast, the highway would likely be unnavigable.

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