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I am not aware of any land transportation in American history in which the government was not heavily involved. Beginning with roads, progressing to canals, then railroads, then highways, then airlines, and ship ports and waterways everywhere in between, one would be hard pressed to find a viable transportation method that has not bee nheavily supported by the government. Sure, there have been many industrial railroads that were paid by solely by the company hat owned them, and parts of the other industries were fully privately owned, but without governemnt assistance, we would in all probability still be riding horses on narrow Indian trails. Railroads especially (the driving force behind our country's rise to prosperity) were massively subsidized in their construction, though the railroad remained in private hands of course-and some railroad men scalped the government. I recall one story of a dinky line railroader in South Mississppi who insisted that his railroad-a three-foot gauge logging line that terminated off in the woods and was constructed of second hand rail, dirt ballast-was worth, per mile, the same as a transcontinental railroad being built at the time. I believe he actually got some money for it! And after te Civil War, many a crooked Yankee speculator robbed the Southern states of tax money in fradulent railroad schemes, adding insult to injury and endearing Northern folks to Southerners for years to come! Of ocurse, the industrialists that came South with real money helped salve things over a bit...

Railroads especially (the driving force behind our country's rise to prosperity) were massively subsidized in their construction

Saw a special on the first transcontinental railroad in America. You are right. Was heavily subsidized by the federal government. Mostly in the form of the land that the tracks were put on. The government provided the land for a reduced rate of shipping on the rail line. The documentary ended with showing the government got over 100 times the cost of the land in savings on reduced shipping costs. So, that was more of an investment that paid off than a subsidy.

Now, when has Amtrack made money?