Amtrak served a record 31.2 million customers in 2012, a 55 percent increase since 1997 that makes it America’s fastest-growing method of transportation, according to a new study from the Brookings-Rockefeller Project on State and Metropolitan Innovation. Nearly all of the growth took place on Amtrak’s shorter routes, especially in the Northeast Corridor that connects Washington D.C. and New England.

The growth in rail travel has generated calls to boost investments. But those efforts have been spurned by Republicans both in Congress and at the state level who object to government subsidization of Amtrak, which receives nearly $1.5 billion a year in subsidies from the federal government.

That focus, however intense, is misguided and ignores the heavy spending on other forms of travel in the United States. The Department of Transportation’s 2012 budget included more than $70 billion for highways and $18.7 billion for the Federal Aviation Administration, but just $8.3 billion for the Federal Railroad Administration. Over the last half-century, the U.S. has spent far more on highways and air travel than it has on railroads:

Much of the spending on roads, highways, and air travel is financed through user fees, but the government has also subsidized other forms of travel. In the last four years alone, lagging user fees have forced the government to provide the Highway Trust Fund with more than $50 billion, more than it has spent on Amtrak since it started in 1971. The airline industry has depended on numerous federal bailouts and government support for construction, security, and more affordable ticket prices.

Amtrak could be more efficient, but it also now covers 85 percent of its operating costs and its per-ticket subsidies are largely in line with other industries. America has always subsidized travel and transportation to make it safer and more affordable and to foster commerce and economic growth, and with overall borrowing costs low and Amtrak breaking ridership records nearly every year, the government should be focusing on how to improve and expand rail transportation, not on cutting what little money those projects receive now.

Americans are relying more on public transportation than ever before, according to a report released Monday by the American Public Transportation Association. The rate of ridership has increased steadily in the last two years, with a 2.6 percent bump (or 7.9 billion trips) over the first three quarters of 2012.

Last year saw the second highest annual ridership since 1957, and the momentum seems to be growing. All forms of public transit, from buses to heavy rail like Amtrak, saw increases in ridership from January to September this year. Heavier use of public transit cuts down on use of fuel, carbon emissions, and congestion, while saving commuters time and money.

This encouraging trend toward public transit, however, could be easily stifled by Congress. Transportation funding is in dire straits, as APTA President Michael Melaniphy noted:

As Congress works to resolve our country’s deficit problem, it also needs to work to resolve the transportation deficit. Otherwise public transit and highway funding will be facing an annual $15 billion shortfall in the next 10 years. We continue to see that in areas where the local economy is improving and new jobs are being added, public transportation ridership is up. This makes sense since nearly 60 percent of the trips taken on public transportation are for work commutes. Public transit service is an important resource for employees and employers as it is instrumental in helping people travel to their jobs.

Though more and more people are relying on public transportation to get to work, Republicans are intent on further bankrupting these systems. The House GOP released a transportation bill in February that would have eliminated funding for mass transit systems, disproportionately hurting low-income urban communities for whom public transportation systems are the only way to get around. The bill failed, but Republicans continue to call for cuts to federal spending on transportation.

If a deal cannot be reached to avert the discretionary spending cuts in the so-called fiscal cliff next year, crucial public transportation programs will be essentially de-funded. One of the programs in danger is the Federal Transit Administration’s New Starts Program, which awards grants for major projects like Washington’s metro line to Dulles International Airport and the Bay Area’s new line to the Oakland International Airport. Amtrak, which suffered serious damages from Hurricane Sandy in October, would lose $131 million. An austerity budget like the one proposed by Republicans could sabotage a steadily growing industry and cut off whole communities that are increasingly relying on mass transit systems.

Amtrak, the federally-subsidized passenger rail that runs across the country, experienced a 3.5 percent jump in ridership last fiscal year, with a total of 31.2 million passengers taking the train. More people rode Amtrak trains last year than any time since 1971.

But despite the growth in rides (and the subsequent jump in profits, as revenue from tickets grew 6.8 percent), the Republican party sees Amtrak as an unprofitable venture, and called in their platform to privatize it entirely, a move that would likely cut off train service to rural Americans who don’t live on high-frequency train routes.

In fact, the National Association of Railroad Passengers believes privatization “would be tantamount to shutting down the entire Amtrak network, because the remaining routes could not cover the system’s overhead costs.”

Which isn’t to say that the system is perfect as-is. Many of the trains on Amtrak lines are more than 30 years old. Even those trains in top condition are slowed by other failing infrastructure, such as America’s crumbling bridges.

But investment, the opposite of privatization, might actually be the better option. America’s construction sector has been flat lining as the rest of the economy recovers, and a long term project to upgrade the rails would likely bring job growth to that sector:

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that “more than $200 billion is needed through 2035 to accommodate anticipated growth” of railroad use.

It’s proven that such investment creates jobs. The Economic Policy Institute studied a single project in Los Angeles and found that, simply on the issue of investment in new trains, “a $1.1 billion purchase of transit railcars from U.S. producers could generate as many as 8,200 jobs.”

During an interview with Fortune magazine that was published today, Mitt Romney said that he would eliminate federal funding for Amtrak as one of his cuts aimed at balancing the budget:

So first there are programs I would eliminate. Obamacare being one of them but also various subsidy programs — the Amtrak subsidy, the PBS subsidy, the subsidy for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some of these things, like those endowment efforts and PBS I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to strand on their own rather than receiving money borrowed from other countries, as our government does on their behalf.

This is certainly not the first time that Romney has singled out Amtrak for the budget cutting knife. “Amtrak ought to stand on its own feet or its own wheels or whatever you’d say,” he told a crowd earlier this year. But, leaving aside that the cuts Romney highlights are not going to get him anywhere close to balancing the budget, Romney intends to slice Amtrak funding at a time when funding for rail service is more necessary than ever.

Amtrak announced earlier this year that it is on pace to break the ridership record it set last year. By 2040, Amtrak “Amtrak said traffic in the [Northeast] corridor could reach 43.5 million passengers, almost four times the level today.”

However, as the New York Times noted, Amtrak desperately needs some upgrades: “Most days, trains in the Northeast are full. Several locomotives and railcars are 30 years old or more. Aging rails, bridges and tunnels hold down top speeds and limit expansion of the network.” America’s freight train infrastructure is also deteriorating.

Already, the National Association of Railroad Passengers has warned that cuts to Amtrak that are being pushed by House Republicans “would be tantamount to shutting down the entire Amtrak network, because the remaining routes could not cover the system’s overhead costs.” Obviously, eliminating Amtrak’s funding entirely would have much farther reaching consequences.