Rich Lowry

The Amtrak crash outside of Philadelphia was an invitation for practically every politician in the Northeast and every transit expert in America to complain about lack of funding for the county’s infrastructure.

They didn’t even wait to know what was the cause of the tragedy to take to the airwaves and recite the usual litany of laments for our “crumbling” infrastructure and our lack of high-speed rail.

What these advocates rarely do is take account of Amtrak as it actually exists. It is a test case of a highly subsidized (and politicized) rail system. Hideously inefficient and wasteful, Amtra...