Amtrak covers more than 21,000 miles of routes to more than 500 destinations in 46 states, as well as three provinces in Canada. Amtrak is also called the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.
Amtrak carried more than 27.1 million riders from October 2008 to September 2009. During that period, Amtrak had a revenue of about $2.35 billion and expenses of about $3.51 billion. Amtrak depends on government subsidies to keep operating.
Other railroads own much of the railroad tracks over which Amtrak travels, or 71 percent of its total miles traveled. Amtrak paid these host railroads about $121.9 million to do this in 2009. The three largest of its host railroads are BNSF, Union Pacific and CSX. The three busiest Amtrak stations are New York City, Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.
