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Long distance routes: Which to continue, which to cut?

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Assuming I have the power to do it, I would drop all the long distance trains.  I would sell the sleepers, dinners, and baggage cars.  If there were no takers, I would scrap them.  I would cancel the orders for new baggage cars and sleepers.  I would eat the cancellation penalties, they are a sunk cost.  I would park the coaches and lounge cars. Next, I would hire Booze, Allen Hamilton or McKinsey or a similarly high powered consulting firm(s) and have them perform a demand analysis for every paired metropolitian area(s) in the U.S. where better, market supported, passenger trains service appears to be a reasonable probability. Which ones could support multiple daily intercity trains and stand a reasonable chance of covering their operating costs within five years would be the central question(s).. Texas is ripe for improved service. I-35 between Jarrell and Hillsboro is being rebuilt. It is a nightmare getting through the construction zones. It is just one of the reasons, I suspect, better passenger train service would appeal to many people along the I-35 corridor, which is anchored by two of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. and has several large intermediate markets (Austin, Temple, and Waco). I would schedule a minimum of three trains a day (morning, noon, and evening) between DFW and San Antonio. The market would support three trains a day if they were marketed properly. I would also increase the frequency between Fort Worth and Oklahoma City.  The trains could be equipped with the high level cars from the Eagle, i.e. one of the lounge cars for food service and two or three coaches. Half of one of the coaches could be converted to business class.   Initially the trains would have to follow the current Eagle route, i.e. BNSF from Fort Worth to Temple and UP from Temple to San Antonio. Ultimately, a better route would be the old MKT line from Fort Worth to Hillsboro, Waco, Temple, Georgetown, and Round Rock, where it could go over to the existing route to San Antonio. Also, in time the routing from Dallas to Fort Worth, as well as into San Antonio would have to be improved so that the trains could cover the end point distances as quickly as Megabus runs off the distance between DFW and San Antonio. There are heaps of other issues that would have to be dealt with, but this is enough to form a picture of what might be possible along the I-35 corridor or similar corridors in the U.S. Unfortunately, as long as Amtrak, as well as regional transportation planners, have to devote considerable resources for the long distance trains, which are used by less than one per cent of intercity travelers, they are likely to miss opportunities for improved regional passenger train service. Megabus, however, has not missed the opportunity. It now has eight buses a day scheduled between DFW, Austin, and San Antonio.  If the lines of people waiting to board the buses in Dallas, Austin and San Antonio are any indicator (I have observed them in all three cities), they are likely to be successful, as in cover their costs and earn a return for the operator.
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