WASHINGTON -- During its rocky 30-year financial history, Amtrak has traveled nonstop from crisis to crisis. Today, it is more than $3 billion in debt -- starved for capital and for a realistic definition of its role by Congress and the administration. Four years ago, after years of feeding Amtrak scraps and micromanaging routes, Congress ordered Amtrak to become operationally self-sufficient by 2003. But without a change of congressional perception, expectation and appropriations, that's a mission impossible, according to an editorial in the Washington Post.

Congress must decide whether Amtrak exists to provide a public service or to turn a profit -- because it cannot do both. No large national rail service anywhere is making a profit. Amtrak President George D. Warrington has laid out questions that Congress must address, beginning with what kind of intercity rail system should exist. Should the national system be limited to profitable routes serving the most highly populated corridors? In subsidizing other transportation -- air and auto travel -- the federal government doesn't limit highway or aviation funds to high-population states and regions. If Amtrak is to be a public service provider, Mr. Warrington notes, "you go where the community need is. If you're a business, you go where the money is. But if you're Amtrak, which way do you go?"

Congress and the administration also must decide how much capital should be provided for a system to fulfill whatever future role it is given. Amtrak's current conflicting mission has left the system with large losses. Since its creation, Amtrak has received about $23 billion in federal capital and operating funds; about $11 billion has been for intercity passenger rail infrastructure nationwide. At the same time, Mr. Warrington points out, the government has put nearly 70 times as much into highways and aviation.

The Transportation Department inspector general's office has concluded that even if Amtrak were to reach operating self-sufficiency, it is unlikely that passenger and other revenues could cover the capital investment needed for a national railroad system in good condition. With sufficient capital, high-speed rail routes could make trains a more attractive, competitive travel option, greatly increasing its ridership.

For too long, members of Congress have gotten away with singing the praises of railroad travel while ducking the hard questions about what kind of system they would support. They need to be put on record before Amtrak reaches the financial end of the line.