Amtrak's Sunset Limited - White House Petition

Maybe this is an odd question, but given Amtrak's averse stance on switching out cars, why do the Eagle and Sunset still have a run-through section at San Antonio? And why, of all trains, is it the Eagle and Sunset, as opposed to CNO or Crescent and Sunset, or the Capital and one of the big western trains that run daily?

It's an odd setup, given that the trains involved are tri-weekly and certainly not the paragon of reliability, and important factor in through-sections.

Finally, I can't figure out where the market is - passengers from north of STL can go west on the Chief, a far more reliable train. So we're down to passengers originating from Arkansas and Texas, which I would assume is a small bunch.

You are discounting the passengers from Florida and the SouthEast who would have to go north out of the way via Washington, DC or Chicago then only to go west again.

There are two significant markets best served by the Eagle-Sunset through cars:

(1) Arkansas & Texas to LA
(2) Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, & Texas to El Paso, Tucson, and Phoenix

In addition, because of the failure of the Missouri River Runner to connect westbound to the Southwest Chief, the through cars are probably getting significant Missouri-LA traffic.

Mr. Nerode, 313-KCY-3 is a perfectly "legal" connection.

Just wanted to add that usually there's just two cars from the Texas Eagle that are switched onto or off the Sunset Limited in San Antonio. Just one coach and sleeper. It's not like they're extending the entire train. Never-the-less, both are usually almost full during the switch in San Antonio in both directions.

CSX has most likely used Hurricane Katrina,the Big Bayou Canot bridge wreck,and the amount of "Haz-Mat"
traffic created along the Gulf coast by various refineries and chemical plants from the La. state line to the Fl state line
as reasons not to restore service.(Was CSX sued after the bridge wreck? Tack that on as well)