article needs additional citations for verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . october 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message national railroad passenger corporation amtrak geographic map of the amtrak system reporting mark amtk amtz locale contiguous united states except wyoming and south dakota ontario british columbia and quebec in canada dates of operation may 1 1971 present predecessor 20 privately operated intercity passenger rail systems track gauge 4 ft 8 1 2 in 1 435 mm standard gauge electrification 12 kv 25 hz ac northeast corridor washington d.c. new haven philadelphia to harrisburg main line keystone corridor 25 kv 60 hz ac northeast corridor new haven boston length 44 routes 21 300 miles 34 000 km track owned 730 miles 1 170 km headquarters union station washington d.c. website www.amtrak.com the national railroad passenger corporation doing business as amtrak mtr k is a passenger railroad service that provides medium and long distance intercity service in the contiguous united states . founded in 1971 to take over most of the remaining u.s. passenger rail services it is partially government funded yet operated and managed as a for profit corporation . 1 amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states and three canadian provinces 2 operating more than 300 trains each day over 21 300 miles 34 000 km of track . some track sections allow trains to run as fast as 150 mph 240 km h . in fiscal year 2015 amtrak served 30.8 million passengers and had 2.185 billion in revenue 3 while employing more than 20 000 people . 4 nearly two thirds of passengers come from the 10 largest metropolitan areas ; 83 % of passengers travel on routes shorter than 400 miles 644 km . 5 its headquarters is at union station in washington d.c. 6 the name amtrak is a portmanteau of the words america and trak the latter itself a sensational spelling of track . 7 8 contents 1 history 1.1 pre amtrak 1.1.1 privately operated passenger rail service 1.1.2 causes of decline 1.1.2.1 government regulation 1.1.2.2 taxation 1.1.2.3 labor related issues 1.1.2.4 subsidized competition 1.1.2.5 loss of u.s. mail contracts 1.2 formation 1.3 1970s the rainbow era 1.4 1980s and 1990s 1.5 21st century 2 operations 2.1 routes 2.2 efficiency 2.3 intermodal connections 2.4 on time performance 2.5 ridership 2.6 guest rewards 2.7 commuter services 2.8 lines 2.9 rolling stock 3 on board services 3.1 classes of service 3.2 wifi and electronic services 3.3 baggage 4 company officers 4.1 list of presidents 4.2 board of directors 5 labor issues 6 public funding 6.1 history of funding 6.1.1 1970s to 1990s 6.1.2 2000s 6.1.3 2010s 6.2 controversy 7 see also 8 notes 9 references 10 further reading 11 external links history edit see also history of rail transport in the united states pre amtrak edit privately operated passenger rail service edit the illinois central railroad s panama limited long distance diesel streamliner train the boston and maine railroad s speed merchant talgo train the gulf mobile and northern railroad rebel streamliner train from the mid 19th century until about 1920 nearly all intercity travelers in the united states moved by rail . 9 page needed historically u.s. passenger trains were owned and operated by the same privately owned companies that operated freight trains . about 65 000 railroad passenger cars operated in 1929 . 10 from 1920 into the later 20th century passenger rail s popularity diminished and there was a series of pullbacks and tentative recoveries . rail passenger revenues declined dramatically between 1920 and 1934 because of the rise of the automobile . 9 page needed in the same period many travelers were lost to interstate bus companies such as greyhound lines . however in the mid 1930s railroads reignited popular imagination with service improvements and new diesel powered streamliners such as the gleaming silver pioneer zephyr and flying yankee . 9 page needed even with the improvements on a relative basis traffic continued to decline and by 1940 railroads held just 67 percent of passenger miles in the united states . 9 page needed world war ii broke the malaise ; passenger traffic soared sixfold thanks to troop movements and restrictions on automobile fuel . 9 page needed after the war railroads rejuvenated the overworked and neglected fleets with fast and often luxurious streamliners as epitomized by the super chief and california zephyr which inspired the last major resurgence in passenger rail travel . citation needed the postwar resurgence was short lived . in 1946 there remained 45 percent fewer passenger trains than in 1929 9 page needed and the decline quickened despite railroad optimism . passengers disappeared and so did trains . few trains generated profits ; most produced losses . broad based passenger rail deficits appeared as early as 1948 9 page needed and by the mid 1950s railroads claimed aggregate annual losses on passenger services of more than 700 million almost 5 billion in 2005 dollars when adjusted for inflation . 10 11 12 page needed by 1965 only 10 000 rail passenger cars were in operation 85 percent fewer than in 1929 . 10 passenger service was provided on only 75 000 miles 120 000 km of track a stark decline . 10 the 1960s also saw the end of railway post office revenues which had helped some of the remaining trains break even . 13 causes of decline edit the causes of the decline of passenger rail in the united states were complex . until 1920 rail was the only practical form of intercity transport but the industry was subject to government regulation and labor inflexibility . 14 15 by 1930 the railroad companies had constructed with private funding a vast and relatively efficient transportation network . citation needed when the federal government began to construct the national highway system the railroads found themselves faced with unprecedented competition for passengers and freight with automobiles buses trucks and aircraft all of which were heavily subsidized by the government road and airport building programs . in 1916 the amount of track in the united states peaked at 254 251 miles 409 177 km compared to 140 695 miles 226 427 km in 2007 although it remained the largest rail network of any country in the world . 16 17 some rail routes had been built primarily to facilitate the sale of stock in the railroad companies ; they were redundant from the beginning . citation needed these were the first to be abandoned as the railroads financial positions deteriorated and the rails were routinely removed to save money on taxes . many rights of way were destroyed by being broken up and built over but others remained the property of the railroad or were taken over by local or state authorities and turned into rail trails . citation needed government regulation edit from about 1910 to 1921 the federal government introduced a populist rate setting scheme . during world war i the railroads proved incapable of functioning as a cohesive network . this forced the united states government to nationalize the rail industry temporarily . in the 1920s railroad profits stagnated many redundant and unprofitable lines were abandoned and many passenger facilities were allowed to fall into a cycle of deferred maintenance all of which in small ways drove passengers away either by higher fares or less appealing service . 15 at the same time the rise in popularity of the automobile and u.s. highways such as the lincoln highway began to eat away at local rail passenger traffic . increases in labor costs also further hindered the railroads ability to make profits on smaller and more sparsely populated lines . 15 the primary regulatory authority affecting railroads beginning in the late 19th century was the interstate commerce commission icc . the icc played a leading role in rate setting which at times hindered railroads ability to be profitable in the passenger market . in the 1930s train speeds were ever increasing but no advancements were being made in signaling and safety systems to prevent collisions . this led to the horrific naperville train disaster of 1946 and other crashes in new york in 1950 . in 1947 18 19 the icc issued an order requiring u.s. railroads within four years to install automatic train stop automatic train control or cab signaling wherever any trains would travel at 80 mph 130 km h or faster . 20 such technology was not widely implemented outside the northeast 21 effectively placing a speed limit in other areas which is still in effect today and why the 79 mph 127 km h maximum passenger train speed is common in the united states . in 1958 the icc was granted authority to allow or reject modifications and eliminations of passenger routes a process known as train offs . 22 many routes required beneficial pruning but the icc operated at a glacial pace delaying action by an average of eight months . by the time it authorized modifications the icc insisted that unsuccessful routes be merged with profitable ones . thus fast popular rail service was transformed into slow unpopular service . 14 the icc was even more critical of corporate mergers . many combinations which railroads sought to complete were delayed for years and even decades such as the merger of the new york central railroad and pennsylvania railroad into what eventually became penn central and the delaware lackawanna and western railroad and erie railroad into the erie lackawanna railway . by the time the icc approved the mergers in the 1960s slower trains years of deteriorating equipment and station facilities and the flight of passengers to air and automobile transportation had taken their toll and the mergers were unsuccessful at preserving these railroads passenger train service . citation needed it is important to note the erie lackawanna was never a major hauler of passengers nor its predecessor roads and was mostly a freight railroad . the penn central merger was a failure because it merged two large struggling railroads on paper only ; two separate management structures remained with little or no integration of assets or management of the former pennsylvania railroad and new york central system . the massive overhead costs of this operating scheme played a far greater role in the penn central failure than any actions taken by the icc or any other us government agency . citation needed taxation edit at the same time railroads carried a substantial tax burden . a world war ii era excise tax of 15 % on passenger rail travel survived until 1962 . 23 local governments far from providing needed support to passenger rail viewed rail infrastructure as a ready source for property tax revenues . in one extreme example in 1959 the great northern railway which owned 0.34 % of the land in lincoln county montana was assessed more than 91 % of all school taxes in the county . 14 to this day railroads are generally taxed at a higher rate than other industries and the rates vary greatly from state to state . 24 labor related issues edit amtrak s former logo 1971 2000 nicknamed the inverted arrow or the pointless arrow . it is still in use on some signs stations and rolling stock . union station the headquarters of amtrak in washington d.c. railroads also faced antiquated work rules and inflexible relationships with trade unions . work rules did not adapt to technological change . 14 average train speeds had doubled from 1919 to 1959 but unions resisted efforts to modify their existing 100 to 150 mile 160 to 240 km work days . as a result railroad workers average work days were roughly cut in half from 5 7 hours in 1919 to 2 3 hours in 1959 . citation needed between 1947 and 1957 passenger