Summary
Elon Musk called for privatizing Amtrak and the U.S. Postal Service, saying America should privatize “everything we possibly can.”
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley conference, he criticized U.S. passenger rail as “embarrassing” compared to other countries.
While Musk didn’t outline steps for privatization, he acknowledged it would require congressional approval.
His remarks align with Donald Trump, who recently suggested reviewing USPS privatization.
Rail (and public transport) should be publically owned. As someone who lives in Victoria, Australia, it is painfully obvious just how much damage the privitisation of our rail system in the 90s did. There was virtually no investment/expansion of the network for over two decades and it’s now too late - we’re stuck continually playing catch-up to the increasing infrastructure demands of our cities.
I’m not familiar with the ownership of Amtrak, but it should be fully government owned and operated. A vertically-integrated transport system was the most cost-effective approach for us and that lasted about a century before the more conservative of our two major parties sold it off.