American taxpayers have "shelled out" almost $40 billion for Amtrak's "gravy train" and in return got "an inefficient, costly, Soviet-style passenger-rail system," House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica (R-Fla.) said yesterday during the latest in a series of committee hearings examining Amtrak operations.

"Each of the past five years the Amtrak per-ticket has hovered around $50, while the total federal subsidy averages $1.432 billion per year," Mica said in a prepared statement issued after the hearing. "That is a lot of money, especially when compared to subsidy rates per passenger of other modes of transportation, and the situation is not improving."

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