IYO which makes the money? Passengers or freight?

 

Not sure there is even a slight question here. If passenger service was profitable, Amtrak wouldn't have happened.

Since the early 1950's when airline travel became available, it began a steady decline in rail passenger service, when AMTRAK happened, the government stepped in to keep it from disappearing altogether, subsidizing it to the tune of millions of dollars from day one. 

Profit for rails has been almost freight generated since that time

Have you looked at ticket prices on Amtrak lately. It's a hefty price to spend 2 days getting somewhere

I don't think that passenger service ever really made money for railroads from almost the beginning.  Passenger trains were PR vehicles ( no pun intended ) for the many railroads that used to traverse the USA.  Freight trains hauled the freight which in turn hauled in the profit/ revenue for the railroads.   Railroads operated passenger trains at a loss or near break even when USPS contracted the railroads to haul the mail on passenger trains... hence head end cars. The then Railway Express Agency also contracted with railroads to haul their cars on passenger trains ... again head end cars for passenger trains.

 

 As the auto became a more popular mode of transportation and trucks offered a more competitive rate scale for the mail, the USPS began canceling contracts with the railroads ... meaning this was the beginning of the very end of passenger trains as some of us once remember them .... and the prelude to AMTRAK.... which President Richard Nixon signed into law ... AMTRAK taking to the rails May 1, 1971.   The railroads were loosing money by the car load on passenger trains during the 1950s and 1960s.... there was no way they could sustain the losses.   For the railroads FREIGHT IS GREAT!  AND i love passenger trains too!  

I have read that most passenger service lost money except during exceptional periods.    This seemed to be the trend even as early as 1900.    World War II was an exception.   Gasoline and autoparts were rationed, no cars were built for a few years and so any kind of travel was difficult.   A number of lines with heavy travel probably made a little money at that time.

 

Even freight train infrastructure costs are high compared to most other forms of transportation.   Remember Railroads own their right of way.   They bought the land, they build the track, and they pay taxes on it.    It is not like highways that are tax funded.    So the RRs have to have enough business to cover the cost of maintaining that property, plus to cover the cost of buying and maintaining their locomotives and rollingstock. 

Until passenger RR's haul people approaching the volume freight RR's haul coal, oil and containers they will struggle to ever be profitable. From what I have read, American freight railroads are exceptional worldwide in volume and ability to generate profit. I'd love to see passenger trains become vogue, but the US is too big geographically and has comprehensive coverage by quality airlines that is too good to make passenger trains competitive with few exceptions. We'll see if HSR efforts in California, Texas and Florida will change that. 

The telling note for passenger non-profitability was the relatively early adoption of gasoline railcars in lightly-travelled areas to offset the monstrous expenses of running a steam mixed train.

Once the mail and package contracts were gone to the airlines, that was it for the company-owned passenger trains.Even high density commuter trains are operated by municipal transit authorities now. Freight ton-miles are where it's at for railroad companies.

Go back in time and try an older EMD F7 at what, 90 gallons an hour of fuel for a 567? Add just a three car train and crew that might be attending to 50 -75 passengers, or far less. All that power and steel for those few people doesn't add up to any bottom line, really.

The modern municipal light-rail is an interesting phenomenon though, running on urban freight lines in some places, co-ordinating between the two services. 

 

There is no opinion on the matter.  Like Hot Water said, it's not that freight makes more money than passenger, it's a fact that freight is the only thing that makes money.

And... 

 

Big Al Perlman said back in '61 that the Twentieth Century LTD. was the only train making money in the east. be interesting to find out what he based that on. Central passenger service as a whole was losing tens of thousands of dollars a day !

Take the Amtrak Auto Train that runs daily each direction from Lorton, Va (Washington, DC) and Sanford, Fla (Orlando).

 

In the fiscal year 2006 the Auto Train carried 207,000 passengers.

 

It grossed $49.4 million

Expenses were $62.1 million

Cost to taxpayers was $12.8 million 

It lost $35,068.00 per day or $17,534.00 each direction as Amtrak runs one train each way.

If you really want to get serious with numbers the tax payers subsidized each passenger by almost $62...I wonder why they don't just raise the fare??