I'm not happy my career is at stake but I am happy more and more people will probably ride Amtrak because of this. Thats the good thing. The northeast is prepared though. The rest of the country....not so much.
Actually, I don't think Amtrak can add much capacity in the northeast very easily. There are those fourty or so Amfleet I cars that as of 6 months ago or whatever all needed to be overhauled before they could be used, but that may be all Amtrak will manage to add in the next couple years. And those fourty cars are probably equivalent to about 25-30 full planes in terms of numbers of seats. But Amtrak may tend to keep those seats occupied longer for a given number of passenger miles, which may make them replace fewer planes than that.
Not necessarily. You are operating on the assumption that Amtrak would need to have all-new equipment designed for this purpose. This is not necessarily so. Now, admittedly, it might take more than two years for Amtrak to get them, but there is no reason why Amtrak can't piggyback on top of NJ Transit and acquire some Comet VI/Multilevel cars. They did it before with the Horizons. They could even call these Horizon IIs.
They wouldn't have to run on the NEC, although they could- they do have 125 mph trucks as is, I think. NJTransit has definitely been talking about certifying the ALP-46a for 125 mph operation. Amtrak could also acquire standard Bombardier Bi-Level (modified for Amtrak comfort levels, perhaps- or they could be used on the Hiawatha in general commuter design) trainsets, use them for Chicago/Midwest services, and yank whatever Amfleets they have off the NEC into NEC service.
They could also use NJTransit Multilevels (modified for Amtrak service to some extent, maybe) for some other trains that they would work with, especially the Keystones and Shuttles. (In other words, the cheapest way to use them would be to design them for trains that do not have food service!) Although, admittedly, their design would preclude use of carts.
Lastly, NJTransit is probably going to retire some older Comets, particularly the Comet Ibs (which are, frankly, nasty cars- converted Arrows) and maybe some Comet IIs. Amtrak hasn't bought used equipment in many years, but they could do so. Comets would not be good in NEC or Keystone service (I'm pretty sure they are only rated to 100mph) but they could be used for Springfield shuttle work, Hiawatha work, and as general cars for Chicago service. Admittedly, they are worn out now- but they would offer quick additional capacity, and probably pretty cheap to purchase.