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geoffrey: don't judge Amtrak by the Sunset Limited... longest route=longest time to become late. And often times they [Amtrak] can't help it, it's the freight railroad's fault. To anyone else: Some people (e.g. U.S. pres, and his sec of transportation, Mineta) seem to think that the NE Corridor is profitable. On a day to day basis (this was before Acela got taken off the rails) yeah it is. However, over a period of time, say a year, maintenance costs still turn it into a negative profit. No railroad (or commuter rail, etc.) in the world (except maybe a luxury railroad that's not really about transportation) is actually profitable over a any real period of time. In fact the longer routes on Amtrak have shown that they make closer to breaking even (still a long shot) than the NE corridor. Why do you think the railroads wanted to unload passenger service in the first place? Privatization is definitely not the way to go. Why choose Amtrak at all? One big reason for me, I have been cross-continent MANY times by train and plane (and I'm not that old either) and I saw a heck of lot more of the continent and learned more by train than by plane. Finally, I don't remember who started the thread, but..... You can't use Amtrak California fares to compare Amtrak to anything except Amtrak California itself. They are different genres entirely in terms of fares and service, etc. In my opinion the premise of this thread was fairly ridiculous to start with. The fares are already high enough to turn many potential riders away.
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