The Bush administration wants to kill off federal funding for Amtrak, but its logic escapes some in Illinois and the Midwest (from various news reports and one press release).

[Secretary of Transportation Norm Mineta] said that the $1.2 billion the federal government now appropriates for Amtrak would be used for infrastructure projects.

Mr. Mineta said a radical overhaul of Amtrak is necessary, insisting the $29 billion appropriated for the system since its inception has not resulted in an efficient and solvent passenger rail system.

More than 25 million trips were taken on Amtrak in 2004, an increase of more than a million and a record high. More than three million of those trips were taken in Illinois, and 76,633 were from the Champaign station, according to Amtrak’s Web site.

“The system as it stands now is dying and everybody knows it. Some people have portrayed this as an attempt to kill Amtrak. I’ve got news for you, if I wanted to kill Amtrak I wouldn’t have to lift a finger,” [Mineta] said.

Ridership on the trains running through Central Illinois saw record gains last year. According to Amtrak, the Statehouse and the Ann Rutledge, both of which run between Chicago and St. Louis, saw an 8.9 percent boost in riders, to 212,999.

The Texas Eagle, which also runs on the Chicago-St. Louis line, saw a 9.5 percent increase to 234,619.

[Mineta] called the current system “fundamentally irrational.”

Mr. Mineta said he wants to Amtrak to mirror the funding mechanism currently used for federal roadways and highways. The states are responsible for maintaining and operating the roadways and the federal government provides a portion of the money for the cost.

First, loss-per-passenger is meaning-less when taken out of context because it does not identify value—especially value to the economy, which benefits whenever an individual travels.

Look at all that real-estate development around O’Hare: The airport itself loses money handling airplanes, and the Federal Aviation Administration requires huge subsidies to run the Air Traffic Control system and enforce safety regulations.

But government recovers all of those losses—and earns billions more—in the taxes paid by individuals and businesses that use air transportation to create new wealth. A “money-losing” governmenttransportation activity—an airport or a highway—can be a powerful driver of business growth. In fact, that’s why the government subsidizes its transportation infrastructure. A “money-losing” passen-ger-train network can perform the same economic magic if given the same resources and rules.