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SENTRY JOURNAL » Economics » $16 to Serve Hamburgers on Amtrak Trains?

$16 to Serve Hamburgers on Amtrak Trains?

August 7th, 2012 | 4 Comments

Yes, you read the title correctly. It costs our government $16 to serve crappy quality, microwavable hamburgers on Amtrak. However, to make up for it, they sell them for $9.50! Bloomberg has more…

I live in New York City, so I’ve eaten my share of $16 hamburgers. If a hamburger costs that much, it’s usually pretty good. It had better be!

But that’s not true if you’re on Amtrak. At a congressional hearing yesterday, we learned that the agency’s on-board, microwave-in-bag hamburgers cost $16 to serve, even though the agency only charges travelers $9.50 to buy one.

The purpose of the hearing was to examine why Amtrak’s food service operations have lost $800 million over the last 10 years. The answer is, apparently, that it costs Amtrak a ton of money to serve food that is mostly pretty terrible.

…

Why doesn’t Amtrak do this? Nick Rahall, the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, has one answer. He says Amtrak food service jobs are well-paying, and we shouldn’t eliminate them, even if the food service is expensive and terrible. “It’s a whopper of an idea, trading good-paying jobs for cheaper hamburgers,” said Rahall.

And this is the government that we want to provide health care, build roads, and (gasp) run more, albeit high speed rail?

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Matt

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I believe that future generations should have the same opportunities that myself, and those that came before me, had. My parents taught me that I could do anything I wanted to do. I don’t want to have to tell my daughter, “You can do whatever the government tells you to do.” We are at a crossroads in this country; are we going to be free, or are we going to be slaves to the nanny state. I choose freedom. I can be found at the Conservative Hideout, or at the Conservative Hideout RapidFire

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Comments
  • Silverfiddle August 7, 2012 at 9:01 AM

    All on the government’s dime, which is really taxpayer money, siphoned away from more productive uses. Democrats, make that most politicians, are economically ignorant.
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  • proof August 8, 2012 at 10:24 AM

    Let me see…McDonalds sell good, cheap hamburgers, makes millions. Amtrak sells lousy, expensive hamburgers, loses millions. I can’t quite put my finger on the problem…
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  • Teresa Rice August 9, 2012 at 7:41 PM

    Nothing like the government wasting the taxpayers money. Its because the government isn’t working within a budget with their own money. So they don’t care about wasting other peoples’ money. Now the American people needs to start holding congress accountable.
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