Editing Amtrak (section)

===Private passenger service===
[[File:The Congressional Pennsylvania Railroad.JPG|thumb|left|The [[Pennsylvania Railroad]]'s ''Congressional'' in the 1960s]]

In 1916, 98% of all commercial intercity travelers in the United States moved by rail, and the remaining 2% moved by [[Inland waterways of the United States|inland waterways]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Historical Statistics of the United States|url=https://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1960/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1957/hist_stats_colonial-1957-chQ.pdf|access-date=November 13, 2017|website=U.S. Census|date=1957|archive-date=February 18, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218120745/http://www2.census.gov/library/publications/1960/compendia/hist_stats_colonial-1957/hist_stats_colonial-1957-chQ.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Nearly 42&nbsp;million passengers used railways as primary transportation.<ref name="Stover-1997-219" /> Passenger trains were owned and operated by the same privately owned companies that operated freight trains.<ref>{{Harvnb|Carper|1968|pp=112–113}}</ref> As the 20th century progressed, patronage declined in the face of competition from [[bus]]es, [[air travel]], and the [[car]]. New [[streamliner|streamlined]] diesel-powered trains such as the ''[[Pioneer Zephyr]]'' were popular with the traveling public but could not reverse the trend.<ref>{{Harvnb|Solomon|2004|pp=49–56}}</ref> By 1940, railroads held 67 percent of commercial passenger-miles in the United States. In real terms, passenger-miles had fallen by 40% since 1916, from 42&nbsp;billion to 25&nbsp;billion.<ref name="Stover-1997-219" />

Traffic surged during [[World War II]], which was aided by troop movement and [[Rationing in the United States|gasoline rationing]]. The railroad's market share surged to 74% in 1945, with a massive 94&nbsp;billion passenger-miles.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stover|1997|pp=219–220}}</ref> After the war, railroads rejuvenated their overworked and neglected passenger fleets with fast and luxurious streamliners.<ref>{{Harvnb|Solomon|2004|p=154}}</ref> These new trains brought only temporary relief to the overall decline.<ref>{{Harvnb|Solomon|2004|p=161}}</ref> Even as postwar travel exploded, passenger travel percentages of the overall market share fell to 46% by 1950, and then 32% by 1957.<ref name="Stover-1997-219" /> The railroads had lost money on passenger service since the [[Great Depression]], but deficits reached $723&nbsp;million in 1957. For many railroads, these losses threatened financial viability.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stover|1997|p=220}}</ref>

The causes of this decline were heavily debated. The [[National Highway System (United States)|National Highway System]] and [[airport]]s, both funded by the government, competed directly with the railroads, which, unlike the airline, bus, and trucking companies, paid for their own infrastructure.<ref>{{Harvnb|Saunders|2001|pp=106–107}}</ref> [[1950s American automobile culture|American car culture]] was also on the rise in the post–World War II years. [[Progressive Era]] rate regulation limited the railroads' ability to turn a profit.<ref>{{Harvnb|Saunders|2001|pp=32–33}}</ref> Railroads also faced antiquated work rules and inflexible relationships with trade unions. To take one example, workers continued to receive a day's pay for {{convert|100|to|150|mile|adj=on}} workdays. Streamliners covered that in two hours.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stover|1997|p=222}}</ref>

Matters approached a crisis in the 1960s. Passenger service route-miles fell from {{convert|107000|mi}} in 1958 to {{convert|49000|mi}} in 1970, the last full year of private operation.<ref>{{Harvnb|Stover|1997|p=228}}</ref> The diversion of most [[United States Post Office Department]] mail from passenger trains to trucks, airplanes, and freight trains in late 1967 deprived those trains of badly needed revenue.<ref>{{Harvnb|McCommons|2009|pp=150–151}}</ref> In direct response, the [[Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway]] filed to discontinue 33 of its remaining 39 trains, ending almost all passenger service on one of the largest railroads in the country.<ref>{{Harvnb|Glischinski|1997|p=96}}</ref> The equipment the railroads had ordered after World War II was now 20 years old, worn out, and in need of replacement.<ref>{{Harvnb|Saunders|2003|p=55}}</ref>