The almost two-year “suspension” of Amtrak’s Sunset Limited has probably made even normally patient newspaper editors grumpy. The paper in my hometown, The Mobile Press-Register, has run a stinging denunciation of the National Railroad Passenger Corporation.

Consider proposals currently under consideration in the House and Senate to increase funding for that classic federal boondoggle, Amtrak.

To fiscal conservatives, the survival of Amtrak under a Republican Congress was symbolic of the larger failure of Republican leaders to rein in spending.

In its 37 years of existence, Amtrak has never broken even. The original sponsors of the rail service envisioned it receiving federal subsidies for a few years before it established itself and began turning a profit. Instead, the losses — and the subsidies — kept piling up, making it a fat target for critics of wasteful federal spending.

The Republicans failed to stop the gravy train while they were in charge. Some GOP leaders, including Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, strongly backed more subsidies for Amtrak.

Now that the Democrats are in charge, the outlook for wasteful spending on lightly used rail service has never looked better.

Where to begin? When they are wrong on just about every point, it is not easy picking a starting point, but here goes anyway.

If only Democrats could be counted on to pass a sensible and balanced transportation package. Amtrak is not proposing even enough funding for urgently needed new equipment on long haul routes. The conditions along the heavily traveled northeast corridor require immediate spending, and the most folks up there can expect is more delay. We’re talking about bridges and tunnels, nothing exotic.

It is incredible to hear the old argument about “lightly used” rail service. The average passenger load, if my memory of the national numbers is correct, runs something like 49%. What does not tell you is that sometime during every trains journey, just about every seat is sold at some time. Amtrak lacks frequencies and additional destinations, which might go a long way toward dealing with this situation.

Anybody who has been on a commercial airline lately knows all about running full loads. What happens when planes miss connections? Passengers get delayed for hours, maybe days. The system, however, does not count them late on the later legs of a delayed journey.

If a history lesson is really necessary, Amtrak was established as a classic example of corporate welfare. No train system in the world operates at a profit, and I seem to remember a few little details about Delta and Northwest. Anybody remember Pan Am and TWA?

Amtrak has taken over the cost of labor protection and railroad retirement contributions for the freight lines. When Nixon signed Amtrak legislation, it was expected to disappear within a few years.

The fact is that Americans want trains. Even Republicans from Mississippi recognize the value of dependable rail service.

Don’t read this as some sort of ringing endorsement of Amtrak management, only a humble retort to the hometown newspaper. I had expected better from the Mobile Press-Register, in which on some dark and distant day my obituary will note “Mr. Lynch was a native Mobilian.”