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[quote user="snarkaz"] In my job I travel along the Sunset Limited Route thur southern Texas (I-10, Hwy 90). Why does this train not head north at San Antonio and service more populated route, thur Dallas, Midland, Odessa?Bet it would boost ridership on this route. [/quote] Your point is excellent.  Midland, Odessa, and Abilene have a combined population of more than 350,000 people compared to approximately 45,000 people in Alpine, Marathon, and Del Rio.   I proposed the following changes in a letter to Amtrak:  Discontinue the Sunset Limited.  Run the Texas Eagle over the old T&P route from Fort Worth to El Paso via Midland and on to the west coast via the Sunset Route.  Extend the Heartland Flyer from Fort Worth to San Antonio.  Extend the City of New Orleans to San Antonio as a day train.  Provide bus connections from San Antonio to Del Rio and Midland to Fort Stockton, and Alpine.  Schedule the trains to provide connection opportunities at Fort Worth for passengers to and from Oklahoma City, Austin, etc. This scheme would improve service in Texas, except for passengers traveling from El Paso and points west to San Antonio and points east.  And vice versa!  It could also improve the calling times of the trains at major points along the way.  Most people will not get up in the middle of the night to catch a train.   The question is how many passengers would be inconvenienced by the changes as opposed to the number of potential new passengers who would respond to improve service in Texas.  For example, running the Heartland Flyer to San Antonio would result in better on-time performance, as opposed to the consistently late running Texas Eagle, and could be timed to offer a more convenient arrival time in the Alamo City as well as the cities between Fort Worth and San Antonio. Amtrak responded with a nice we'll look into it letter.  Nothing has happened.  There are too many obstacles to overcome.
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