Profitability Guardians and Service Advocates

The 1970 Rail Service Passenger Act established the twin objectives of service and profitability for the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (NRPC or Amtrak). These objectives reflect distinct clusters of values in the American political culture that have been in historic conflict. They also represent different roles of the branches of government as expressed in the doctrine of separation of powers. Though synthesis of these values is not possible without affront to a basic tenet of American politics, guided policy conflict can narrow the range of differences between both values to benefit the public. Assuming that national rail passenger service is a viable policy, where either value is allowed to prevail, efficiency and effectiveness suffer. Uncontrolled service expansion implies a welfare operation; rigid emphasis on full cost pricing would shut down the entire system. While competitive tension between advocates of the two values must be encouraged, prolonged imbalance or forced synthesis seems to affect performance negatively. The lesson of the Amtrak experience (1972-1983) strongly suggests that where traditional service and profitability values conflict, Congress must exercise oversight by tightening fiscal controls and increasing managerial discretion. This permits direction of institutional resources toward improving policy performance

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