AMTRAK TO THE RESCUE - All Aboard: The Complete North American Train Travel Guide - page 30

being subsidized by one or more levels of government. In 1978
Congress formally acknowledged Amtrak's need for government
support by ordering the company to generate enough revenue
on its own to cover at least half of its operating costs. Then, a
few years later, Congress finally dealt with the problem its own
members created. Specific monetary guidelines were set up for
judging every train in Amtrak's system. Trains that fell below
certain minimums for ridership and revenue would face elimina-
tion, even over the inevitable objections of individual members
of Congress.
No Friend in Reagan
Somehow Amtrak managed to muddle through the 1970s, meet-
ing and at least trying to deal with one obstacle after another. Then
a very large obstacle came along in 1981 when Ronald Reagan
took office as the country's 40th president. Reagan was opposed
to any subsidy for Amtrak. With budget director David Stock-
man leading the charge, the first of many attempts to reduce or
eliminate the flow of federal dollars to Amtrak occurred. Instead
of proposing plans for the future, Amtrak found itself having to
justify its very existence to an administration that was almost
blindly anti-rail. (Ironically, for many years Ronald Reagan the
movie actor had appeared in advertising campaigns extolling the
virtues of the Union Pacific Railroad's passenger service.)
Another Change at the Top
It had taken almost four years, but influential pro-rail members
of Congress had finally gotten the idea that Roger Lewis was not
the right man to be running Amtrak. One clue came when, in
spite of all its problems, Lewis would not support a request to
Congress for additional funding by the company he headed.