<<< Just give them an increased budget and one more year, they will get it right!><>
And THAT is exactly the problem...
Year to year not knowing what the funding will be, while infrastructure built in the 1910's and 20's falls apart...
The sad reality is that for Amtrack to survive, it NEEDS to die, but going without a national rail service IS NOT an option.....
It's unfortunate, but we NEED a national system that connects small and large. Between Bus cuts, rail cuts, and massive cuts in rural air service,(Almost all of that money now goes to Alaska), we now have HUGE swaths of the country without ANY public transport...
I took an Amtrack train once in my life.. from Fort Wayne Indiana to Chicago and back with my family when I was about 10 years old. It was fun and interesting, but we could have easily made the trip in the Country Esquire. The only heavily used service is in the North Eastern seaboard, which could easily be provided by a private company... even with some minor subsidies to get them up and running. You will never convince me of the need for a national Federal rail system.