[DesertRhino]

If by reform you mean cut off all long distance trains to middle America, so everyone in America can provide extra trains for the coastal animals.

Every single long distance train like the Southwest Chief is packed on every run. Sleeper cars too.

If we have 8-10 billion a year to squander in Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan and Africa each year, we sure as hell got 1.4 billion to have Amtrak out west.

[Publius]

By reform, I would like multiple trains per day on each existing route and the revival of old routes. I'd like an Amtrak long distance route map to follow the basic course of today's interstates because those are our current transportation corridors.

When the Southwest Chief was threatened with "bustitution" by Amtrak from Dodge City to Albuquerque, BNSF said it was "appalled" by Amtrak's decision. The old Super Chief was the Santa Fe's flagship train; thus the Southwest Chief was heir to a proud tradition at BNSF.

I asked a VP at BNSF in Fort Worth whether there was a price tag on being appalled. "How appalled are you? Are you appalled enough to take the train back from Amtrak and run it again as the Super Chief?"

"Wel-l-l-l," was the answer, "we're not that appalled."