Amtrak

Amtrak, formally the National Railroad Passenger Corporation, is the primary provider of intercity passenger rail service in the United States, headquartered in Washington, D.C. It was created by the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970 and began operations in 1971, taking over intercity passenger routes that private freight railroads had been running at a loss and wanted to shed. Amtrak is a quasi-public corporation, structured as a for-profit company but funded substantially by the federal government, and it operates most of its network over track owned by freight railroads rather than track of its own, the major exception being the Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington, which Amtrak owns and maintains itself.