LEO Express expansion

Looking at an article I just read it looks like Amtrak will be getting some competition. What do you guys think.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/15/news/economy/european-trains-leo-express/

Interest how this chaps age always shows up in the story.

LEO doing good in Europe.

Wish him and his company the best.

Better to stick with Europe, they pretend to have open access there.

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So why did a story about Amtrak getting a successful rail operator looking into provide services in this country. Who will be competing for pax with Amtrak get push out of Amtrak tread?

Would it not be headline news if Virgin was looking into running trains in the USA.

I still think it not going to happen, but this guys company has overcome big issues in the past. His background will give him a chance.

Best of luck to him. His best bet is probably going to be supplementing longer-haul commuter operations (e.g. Philly-New York, New Haven-New York, etc.) in some way if he can get by the access problems. 25 years back he probably could have cut through the access issues without too much trouble; now, not so much.

The other possibility is that he snags a bid on one of the routes where Amtrak and the state aren't getting along great (I'm assuming, as a non-owner of track in the US, that he'd probably need to work with the state(s) he wanted to operate around). California seems to be getting primed for that, after all...and I highly doubt they'd complain if a private operator came in willing to supply their own equipment.

Edit: There have been rumblings that Virgin wants to bid on operating CAHSR if that ever gets sufficiently completed.