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Before the riot starts, let me say I know there are many excellent people who are, and who have worked for Amtrak, or in the Government, trying to "fix" Amtrak. Neither party has done a thing to push Amtrak much past 1971. As far as I´m concerned it ended before it started. Just a look at the pre Amtrak passenger rail map of April 1971 and the Amtrak map of May 1 says it all. I think we have all lived in an airline era where non-stop is the only two words that mean anything to anyone. That is a great concept for air but it really stinks for rail. Sure a few corridor non-stops might be in order but the bigger picture is that Amtrak is susposed to be a National system. Not a  Washington, NY, Boston railroad. What I am driving at is no matter how good the Empire Builder is, what about the people in Butte?, Livingston? Miles City? etc. Now multiply that times the many routes we are all familiar with: Chicago-St. Louis is a good example. How many routes or rail lines connect these cities? How many towns are in the middle? Anyone in Chicago or St.Louis can go to the airport and fly away, but can the people of all those little towns? No! Only the ones on the single Amtrak route serving this "corridor". Danville, Decatur and Clinton? forget it.  The abandonment of the old Seaboard Air Line System in Virginia and Central Florida, and the trains that served it are part of the same saga. Sure one can get from Washington to Miami, but what about Ocala, Dade City or Gainesville? THESE are the towns that really need and depend on Amtrak. In fact Ocala spent millions on its old Union Station to make it into a showplace transportation center and what do they get for their effort? A single train each way at 2 am which has now been re-routed. Go to any major airport and look at the arrivals and departures. Not only are they fast but they move very often, many times a day, just pick your departure or arrival time. Not so on the railroad. We have marshalled everything onto a single route then for the most part cut that to one train each way daily. Has anyone in Washington thought to study a single Amtrak route such as BNSF´s Chicago-LA mainline? The BNSF serves MANY mini corridors with one train. Chicago-Kansas City, Kansas City-Newton, Las Vegas-Albuquerque, Northern Arizona and of course Barstow-San Bernandino-LA. What would happen if all that AM-JUNK, sitting in long lines at Amtraks shops,  were restored and another schedule added to the Southwest Chief route? Imagine the Grand Canyon, or El Capitan.. 3 trains using the route. The more trains on the line the less the cost per train for stations and support. But what about those who live in Santa Rosa NM? or Liberal KS? not even 3 trains on the BNSF route would help them so we must figure either through trains, sections or connecting services on the Golden State Route, The Overland Route, and the Texas Pacific Eagle route. It´s not that the ridership from LA to Chicago would suddenly jump but that the cost per train would fall while local and smaller town ridership would soar. As a onetime City Councilman the only idea I have ever heard to fix this is to give the trains back to the railroads, train by train, route by route and coach by coach as they requested them. Then make it so sweet that they would knock down the door to get them back. Set up a long term Tax relief program equal to (a magic number worked out by the railroads and government on a sliding scale...perhaps as high as 100 or 110% ) the total cost of operating said train over said route. So if the Starlight cost 20 million a year to operate then UP could get say 80% of the total cost of this train, it´s services, staff, promotion, stations, locos and cars applied aginst the total federal (states could join in to sweeten the pot) tax bill of the company. If the train passed certain inspections by an "Amtrak over-seeing and reservations agency" for on-time performance, promotion etc... then it goes to 90%. For new services it goes to 100% or 110%. In other words if a railroad wanted to increase performance with rehabilitation, new track, signals and such, the passenger train would be a ticket by writing off the cost in taxes. This would even work if we stay with the current system and a state or states wanted to add a service in addition to Amtrak. Lets say Chicago-Des Moines-Omaha on the Iowa Interstate. Nebraska, Illnois and Iowa could form a "Tax Train" pact and not only get the train but the railroad could get it´s line up to 60 mph perhaps with signaling. What ever could be charged to the train could be refunded with tax breaks. But alias, one group wants to kill it outright and the other wants to micro-manage a top heavy monster . Worse they cross party lines, with some of each in both parties. So I  won´t hold my breath. In the meantime, by putting what few trains there are onto single routes we defeat the purpose of transportation for all. It´s like a bunch of us building a Wal-Mart store with a single long aisle and only one product. Ocklawaha
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