True enough, Tad. The Horizon fleet ought to be railworthy as long as Amtrak cares to keep it that way, assuming it can find body-specific parts or order a small run of one-off pieces.
The question becomes, when do you stop sinking money into your 1991 Dodge Ram 12-passenger van and upgrade to a 2019 Mercedes Sprinter coach? And, at what point does it become more expensive to operate, repair, and reupholster that Dodge than the combined operation and purchase payments for a Mercedes? From secondhand experience I know that Ram vans are reliable for multiple hundreds of thousands of miles, but eventually you’re going to have door problems, rust-through, paint fading, windows delaminating, AC and heating issues, electrical faults... and we’ll say there’s a surprisingly large market for used one-owner “church vans” like these. All that aside, your Uncle Sam and his fifty kids will help finance the Sprinter for you, and you get to pick each and every option.
(For comparison:
1991 Dodge Ram Van and
2019 Mercedes-Benz Sprinter coach)