Amtrak expects 2020 to be first profitable year in the company’s history

This appeared in The Millennial Source

For the first time in its 50-year history, Amtrak, the largest passenger railroad service in North America, is set to make a profit. That is according to company projections for 2020, as reported by the company’s board chairman.

Despite these optimistic projections, Amtrak has started the year with a pair of bad public relations stories.

Amtrak’s fiscal growth

Amtrak Board Chairman Anthony Coscia stated on Nov. 8 that in 2020, Amtrak “will have positive earnings for the first time in the company’s history.”

Asthe Washington Post reported, this would follow 2019’s successful fiscal year in which the company nearly broke even. Carrying a record 32.5 million passengers, Amtrak generated an operating revenue of $3.3 billion, an increase of 3.6 percent over 2018. Even with that growth, though, Amtrak still had an operating loss of $29.8 million for the fiscal year of 2019.

Amtrak’s decades of instability

As Business Insider reported, Amtrak has always struggled with “financial instability.” A 1970 law, passed by President Richard Nixon, paved the way for the creation of…