Amtrak Success Stories

SouthernRailway wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2019 8:12 pm how to sell all of those unsold seats.

Frequency on corridor routes outside of the NEC. The levels of service the Empire Line and Keystone Line get are acceptable and both do get decent ridership. Texas could work with San Antonio-Austin-Waco-Ft. Worth-Dallas. Are there operable tracks that could run a Colorado Springs-Denver-Boulder train? Same deal with Cleveland-Columbus-Cincinnati-Louisville, or even just the Ohio ones. There are so many potentially lucrative medium-distance corridors out there, Amtrak needs to pick one and start getting to work.

5-7 trains a day on any of those could increase ridership tenfold.

ThirdRail7 wrote: ↑Sun Nov 10, 2019 10:38 amThe best the current regime can do is close the gap.

Agreed here as well. It also seemed to me that they decided to close the gap by making the only available cuts they felt were politically palatable. Remember that Anderson went after the transcontinental services first. He did so openly and was rebuffed by Congress. The secondary effect of this choice was that it gave him the leverage he needed to make the foodservice cuts without getting complaints from Capitol Hill. It probably wasn't a deliberate strategy but he seems to play the hand he is dealt quite well.