FASCISTS COULDN'T MAKE THE TRAINS RUN ON TIME, EITHER. But a proper Duce would not be a prisoner to public choice. Amtrak, alas, is not so lucky, argues Joseph Vranich in End of the Line (details or compare prices), the subject of Book Review No. 6. Mr Vranich is a former Amtrak advocate mugged once too many times by reality. He makes the case that Amtrak is an underfunded political creature incapable of being both a provider of high-speed service (in those parts of the country sufficiently populated to benefit from such investment: regular readers are well aware that what is projected for high-speed often falls short of what railroads used to do with steam locomotives running on jointed rail protected by semaphore signals) and of long-distance service (where Amtrak has not provided a consistent vision in any event, sometimes aspiring to run a deluxe cruise service and sometimes resurrecting the mail and express train with a rider coach or two) in the sparsely-settled parts of the country that nonetheless have a Member of Congress and two Senators each of whom vote on Amtrak's funding.

The funding, Mr Vranich argues, is inadequate for some important components of the permanent way, particularly along the Northeast Corridor, which -- when all is working well -- is the most impressive high-speed line in the world. In an infelicitously timed counterpoint to the snow emergency that closed airports throughout New England, the Thames River draw at New London, Connecticut, picked this weekend to act up.

Amtrak also serves as an impediment to local rail service as it owns key facilities such as the North and East River tunnels in New York as well as the basement of Madison Square Garden, otherwise known as Penn Station; in Boston Amtrak operates the commuter rail service, but not very well (although Boston suffered for years with the New Haven on the south and the Boston and Maine on the north, both ravaged by the same Patrick B. McGinnis); and in Chicago several Metra lines terminate at Union Station, an Amtrak property. Mr Vranich argues that the suburban train operators provide a basis for intercity train service operated by agencies other than Amtrak.

In a related development, Metra may be granted authority to operate commuter train service between Chicago and Milwaukee through Kenosha, Wisconsin, on a route that closely parallels Amtrak's. Should the extension occur, a policy and operational framework would permit phasing out Amtrak and substituting Metra as the operator.

That suggestion conceals a few complications. First, the parallel service, an extension of the Metra North Shore service through Waukegan and Kenosha, would be a slower local service, not competing directly with the Hiawatha service that now takes you to the planes (although providing only one platform at the airport station is penny-wise and pound foolish). Second, the Milwaukee-Racine-Kenosha line is property of Union Pacific, succeeding Chicago and North Western, which paid to join Amtrak to be relieved of passenger service; some legalities might get in the way. Third, the operational framework is not free of other public choice follies, such as a downtown Milwaukee alderman who would like a bigger station (and the beautified access to the Avenue we were promised 40 years ago.) On the other hand, at Thanksgiving the Hiawatha service is often provided by Metra's locomotives and coaches, freeing up some of Amtrak's skimpy fleet of coaches for other lines.