Amtrak's enemies have wanted to rip apart America's loss-making national railway company for years. Now may be the time to do so. A report recommending Amtrak's break-up will be before Congress in February. Norman Mineta, the transport secretary, will shortly produce his own ideas for the railways. Most promising are the noises filtering out of Amtrak itself, which has hitherto resisted the idea of its own dismemberment. The report, from the Amtrak Reform Council, formally ends a five-year period of probation for Amtrak. In 1997, as Congress debated withdrawing the company's annual subsidy, Amtrak cut a deal. In return for a $2.2 billion one-off payment to modernise track and trains, the company promised to achieve "operational self-sufficiency" (ie, to stop losing quite so much money) by the end of 2002, pinning its hopes on new high-speed services on the east coast. Congress set up the Amtrak Reform Council to keep an eye on progress.
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