Amtrak Trains Keep Breaking Down Despite Massive Injection Of Taxpayer Cash

Amtrak, the national passenger railroad company of the U.S., continues to have routine breakdowns despite receiving massive injections of taxpayer dollars from the Biden administration, according to data from the Department of Transportation (DOT).

Since 2021, there have been 333 Amtrak train incidents reported nationwide as of July 9, 2024, slightly less than the 397 incidents that occurred between 2016 and July 2020 during former President Trump’s tenure, according to the DOT. The Biden administration, as a part of an announced $66 billion for passenger rail in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, has dedicated huge amounts of taxpayer cash to Amtrak, including $4 billion being given to the rail company near the end of 2022, according to the White House.

Of the incidents under Biden, 66 of the 333 were derailments, 84 were obstructions, five were fires or “violent ruptures,” 115 involved rail crossings over roads and 54 were described as “other,” according to the data. In total, $4 million in equipment damage has been incurred since 2021.

The most recent Amtrak disruption was on Saturday after a faulty circuit breaker caused a power outage that disrupted service on the busy New York and Boston lines, with officials blaming a lightning strike for the outage, according to CBS. The outage was announced in the afternoon and lasted until 9:50 p.m. when Amtrak completed its repairs and offered to waive other charges to customers changing reservations.

Since the creation of Amtrak in 1971, it has