They are not profitable. Like the US Postal Service, Amtrak has a mandate to serve smaller towns. Which means they have to maintain a station and local staff in

They are not profitable. Like the US Postal Service, Amtrak has a mandate to serve smaller towns. Which means they have to maintain a station and local staff in each to service the typical 2-4 trains a day. Also, since Amtrak doesn't own the tracks outside the Northeast, they have to pay railroads like Union Pacific & BNSF for the privilege. The Northeastern Corridor is their most profitable section, as the ridership is much higher and they own their own tracks. What could they do to become profitable? Not sure. Assuming they magically got their own set of tracks for free, they then wouldn't have to pay the railroads for using theirs. But they'd have to pay to maintain all that right-of-way (tracks, bridges, tunnels, signals, etc.) At least they'd be on time though (not blocked by massively long freight trains like they are today).