The Senate on Tuesday agreed to limit debate on an $11.4 billion, six-year reauthorization of Amtrak, the nation’s passenger railroad, after rejecting an amendment that would have cut its money-losing food service contracts.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said he hoped the Senate could finish work on the measure by day’s end.

The amendment targeting Amtrak’s food service contracts, offered by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., was defeated 24-67. It would have required Amtrak to stop providing food and drinks on any route that lost money on those services for two years in a row.

“This isn’t rocket science, this is, if you’re going to sell it, you ought to at least sell it for enough to cover the cost. And yet we continue to not do that,” Coburn said, adding that cutting food and beverage losses could save Amtrak $125 million to $150 million.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said cutting food and beverage services on long-distance routes, where a trip may take days, would be tantamount to axing the route altogether.

“I’m not going to take an Amtrak passenger train from some remote area that’s going to be on the rail there for a day or maybe even overnight and not get any food service,” Lott said.

More votes on amendments were expected later Tuesday, including ones that sought to put more financial strictures on Amtrak, or move toward weaning the rail service off federal subsidies.