Amtrak, the U.S. taxpayer-supported passenger railroad, is losing tens of millions of dollars a year on food and beverage service even after years of cost cutting, its inspector general said.
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Amtrak’s Auto Train from Virginia to Florida offers passengers complimentary wine and cheese, and three long-distance routes provide complimentary wine and champagne to sleeper-car passengers, Alves said, costing Amtrak $428,000 in 2012.
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“The Amtrak Inspector General has confirmed that Amtrak cooked the books to cover up food service losses that now approach $1 billion,” [John] Mica [R-Florida, chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee – DB] said.
(Hattip: Virginia Postrel, by way of the Popehat Twitter.)
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They’re being operated by an entity (the US Government) that has, in the past, successfully demonstrated its ability to lose money on an establishment offering the general public their choice of (seperately or in combinations of their choice) whiskey, blackjack, and hookers.
It surprises me not at all that they can lose money selling meals on trains. Given how much they’re required to overpay their staff, it might actually be _hard_ to not lose money on F&B service.