WASHINGTON — It might seem like a no brainer: The earnings of Amtrak’s only profitable route, the Northeast Corridor, should be reinvested in maintaining the heavily traveled line’s infrastructure.
But for decades, profits from the Boston-Washington rail were siphoned off to prop up the 21,300-mile nationwide passenger railroad system, which last year booked a $306.5 million loss.

However, buried within the $114 billion bill to fund transportation and housing programs is language stipulating the $300 million in annual profits derived from traffic along the N.E. corridor be channeled back into its deteriorating tracks, bridges, tunnels and other real estate.

The full Senate approved the bill last week. It must now be merged with whatever the House passes before moving to the president’s desk for enactment.

“This was always completely unjustifiable but it persisted because you had 40 states (outside the Northeast) matched up against 10 states (of the corridor),” said Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who is on the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee.

Murphy and other lawmakers from the Northeast prevailed upon congressional leaders to stop the diversion in its tracks before the corridor atrophies further.

In addition to rechanneling profits, a new Northeast rail fund is getting $345 million this year for a potential total of $600-million-plus to fix accident-plagued lines in Connecticut and throughout the 457-mile line. Also, the transportation-housing bill includes an additional $20 million for cost-sharing between the federal government and states on corridor projects.

The Connecticut Department of Transportation owns the 46 miles of Metro North tracks between the New York state line and New Haven. Amtrak owns a total 363 miles of track between Washington and Boston.
Although the exact dollar proportions are not known, Connecticut stands to benefit from the new sources of rail funding, Murphy said.

“This is great news for Connecticut,” said Murphy. “Connecticut rail commuters have been subsidizing the rest of the country’s money-losing rail operations for years. Now when you buy a Metro North ticket, that money is going to stay here.”

There is a backlog of $20 billion in projects just to keep the line in a good state of repair over the next 20 years, he said.

“The money doesn’t get us everything,” he added. “But it’s a step in the right direction.”

According to Amtrak, 2,200 passenger and freight trains operate over some portion of the corridor each day. About 750,000 Amtrak and commuter passenger trips are taken each day along the Northeast corridor, by far the nation’s busiest stretch of track.