It’s bizarre we talk about USPS and Amtrak as operating at a “loss.” They are public goods, so I don’t know why there’s an expectation that they turn a profit. Whatever the shortfall is should be considered the operating cost of the service, like every other agency.
The total operating cost of USPS is something like $3.5 billion, and Amtrak is around $1 billion. That seems like a hell of a deal for what they provide. If it’s that cheap to operate Amtrak, we should put a couple more billion dollars into it, make it nicer, and lower ticket prices.
Edit: The USPS number is quarterly, but, still.
