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[quote user="Flashwave"]Sam: I'm still missing it: what are you calling a long distance train? (Emprie and Zephyr are givens, but what else are you whacking out? Any more private ventures and the tracks are gonna be full.[/quote]Amtrak classifies 15 of its trains as long distance.  They are the Silver Star, Cardinal, Silver Meteor, Empire Builder, Capitol Limited, Californa Zephyr, Southwest Chief, City of New Orleans, Texas Eagle, Sunset Limited, Coast Starlight, Lake Shore Limited, Palmetto, Crescent, and Auto Train.I would eliminate all of them.  They bring in only 23 per cent of Amtrak's revenues while racking up 142 per cent of the operating expenses before other charges.  After other charges they eat up 48 per cent of the federal subsidy required to cover Amtrak's loses, as per the 2007 operating and annual reports.  Although ridership is up in 2008, so are expenses.  As a result, some of the long distance trains are losing even more per passenger mile than the lost in the first eight months of 2007.    If the states want to operate the long distance trains, or if a private operator wants to operate one of them or all of them, which no one in a business would be foolish enough to do, with the possible exception of the Auto Train, they could do so.  If California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and Louisiana wanted to operate the Sunset Limited, they would be free to do so providing they could negotiate an operating agreement with the hoist railroad.
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