A very interesting article can be found here:
http://www.csmonitor.com/specials/amtrak/lines.html
The real truth of the matter is that Amtrak trains do turn a profit. On its paper, they don’t.
Why? Amtrak spreads its corporate and capital costs across the whole system, and unfarily on its long distance routes.
Add up the losses, and on the long distance trains the total is less than $300 million.
Somewhere Amtrak is losing $700 million…The trains don’t make enough to cover this costs.