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[quote user="MidlandMike"] Are the intrastate needs of Texas (or any other state) still the mission of Amtrak?  Starting in 2014(?) aren't the states required to make up all losses on corridor trains?  CA, IL, & MI have put in an order for the construction of their own passenger cars.  What is stopping TX from buying cars and adding frequency to DFW-SA or SA-HOU?[/quote] Money and political will!   As noted in another posting to this thread, Texas and Oklahoma fund the Heartland Flyer deficit. The average annual amount kicked in by Texas from 2007 to 2011 was $1,754,200. Oklahoma ponied up a like amount. The amount in 2012 was approximately $1.8 million per state. The Texas Legislature just went through a bruising fight to find enough money to keep up the state's roadways.  I doubt that it has an appetite for more money for passenger rail.  It is not a hot button in the Lone Star state. DART and the "T" fund the Trinity Railway Express. It runs between Dallas and Fort Worth.  It is a commuter railroad, but it has the properties of an intercity service. I don't believe the state has any financial stake in the TRE. The per passenger subsidies are more than the price of a ticket. Ditto for the Capital Metro commuter rail line from Leander to Austin. The Lone Star Rail District (ASA) is studying the feasibility of passenger rail service between Austin and San Antonio. It has been studying it for more than a decade. It has gotten some money from TXDOT for its studies. However, the project has not gone beyond the study stage due to an absence of funding.  Last week I talked with one of the District representatives. She told me that the original data is so out-of-date that the ASA is having to rework all of it. It is a consultant's dream. Amtrak attempted to kill the Sunset Limited. It proposed to extend the Texas Eagle from San Antonio to LAX as a daily train, with a connecting train from New Orleans to San Antonio. The Union Pacific Railroad killed the idea. It wanted a large amount of money to expand its facilities to hoist a daily Texas Eagle.   The UP is also a major stumbling block for the ASA.  To make it possible the UP has said that it will need state (federal) money to upgrade its route east of Austin, since its line through Austin to San Antonio could not support the current freight traffic and commuter or intercity rail.  The cost to upgrade the route around Austin would be in the neighborhood of $2 billion.  The state is not likely to put up the money. Until there is a major shift in the composition of the Texas Legislature, the probability of more money for passenger rail in Texas is slim and none.  And Slim just left town.
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