Rail advocates are often torn between arguing that everyone else subsidizes passenger trains, so we should too; and arguing that passenger trains could make a profit if only we would provide enough initial capital investment. High-speed rail advocates, for example, often claim that high-speed trains in Europe make money. For example, in 2008 The Economist wrote that the French TGV “lifted the [French state] railway to a profit of 695 million euros in 2006.”
Money maker or money loser?
Last year, Amtrak’s Inspector General hired a European consulting firm to examine such claims. The resulting report demolishes any notion that European railroads make money.
