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[quote user="henry6"] It sums up all the answers we're going to get...and most are not answers but opinons or conjecture.  If you want an answer, the answer you want, it is up to you to post it.  No one here is enough of an expert to give such an answer but only cite history, performance, experience, and opinion.  And we've gone round and round not just here and now but many times before.  In the end, unless Amtrak does something now, there really isn't an answer.  And your questions unasnwered have been addressed in that Amtrak is not immune and has tried several different approaches with varying degrees of success.  Your first question about subsidies is a political question rathar than an operational question which will not produce a satisfying answer now matter what is said. [/quote] It is an operational and marketing question.  Now to my perspective. Passenger trains only make sense in relatively short, high density corridors where the cost of expanding the highways and airways is prohibitive. I have held this position since joining these forums approximately five years ago. The ideal corridor is roughly 100 to 300 miles and can be (ultimately will be) traversed in three hours max. New York to Washington is one of the best examples.   My model eliminates the long distance trains and most of the so-called other or short corridor trains. That takes care of the dinning and lounge car problem.  Corridor passengers could buy something to eat at a good station restaurant, like those in Washington, before departure and, if desired, buy something else when they get to New York or most of the stations in between the end points. The food service vendors in the stations cover their costs. And they do a heck of a better job serving eats and drinks than what one gets on the train. Starbuck's coffee beats anything that I have had to force down on the train. Very few of Amtrak's NEC passengers travel from Boston to Washington. Most of them probably are on the train for two to three hours. Who cannot go without food and drink for three hours, especially if they can buy it in the station before or after their trip?  Air shuttle passengers seem to do without food on the plane; so too do bus travelers. On my last trip to Washington I did not see any emaciated passengers stumble off the Bolt bus because of caloric deficiencies.   For those passengers who want to travel from Washington to Boston, which means more than three hours on the train, cart vendors could meet the train in Penn Station and sell light fare. Use to work pretty well in Harrisburg when I rode the train from Altoona to New York.
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