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I wish Amtrak would get out of the sleeper/food business altogether. Let the service be transitioned over to a 3rd party provider. Amtrak could concentrate on providing the basic service (Coach) and running the train across the rails and let a private provider take on the sleeper/food service...

I'm afraid my take on this goes against the grain of many of the louder voices. 1.Having had the good fortune to experience dining at 35,000 feet, it is very possible to serve meals way above Amtrak's previous standards. Entirely up to the purchaser (Amtrak) and the caterer. I didn't say it...

1 or 2 percent of this could have transformed Amtrak's Long Distance service for the next 30 or 40 years. http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/03/news/economy/green-stimulus/index.html Trust me, I'd love to see AMTRAK get a dedicated 1/4 of 1 % of the gas tax for infrastructure and capital improvement...

Yes, contracting out is a much better term for what I'm referring. Here is my real skinny on it. I want national passenger rail to succeed beyond our wildest expectations. But it takes political will to do it. The average rider who buys the coach seat from Marshall, TX to Chicago...is going...

"This makes no sense whatsoever. The only way Amtrak can ever make it is a higher degree of NATIONALIZATION of the track" Don't think anyone on here would ever accuse you of being subtle. The point, which was lost on my wording, was that the OBS part of Amtrak would likely benefit from some...

From my own perspective, some degree of privatization is probably the only way Amtrak can ever move to the next level of where we all want it to go. 1. Amtrak gets kicked in the teeth repeatedly but doesn't always deserve it. There are many hard working employees who want to see improvement...

I would say that there seems to be little political will on either side of the aisle to do the right thing for passenger rail in this country. We really missed the boat in the late 60's / early 70's in getting a high speed rail network investment in place. Rail can work in this country but it...

The neat thing is that it is all math and equations and a little guessing. As Train2104 said, would be interesting to know. The missing part is knowing how many people search for an accomodation and are NOT ABLE TO FIND ANY AVAILABLE. That is the unmet demand. And realizing that I am not...

I'm well aware of yield management and the generalities of how it works and that we don't live in a perfect world. The difference is that the airline, for the most part, is still selling a seat yet can have a rather large difference of pricing power and allocation over that seat. With Amtrak...

So in a perfect world, would it be wiser to fix the demand issue on the Bedrooms and generate higher yield (also feeding fewer people/incurring less per person costs) or decide "this is where we are" and just leave it as is?

Taking into account that seasonal and route differences are obvious and no need to light up the blow torches, there has to be some general feeling out there whether demand is higher for Roomettes or Bedrooms. With that in mind, I wonder which of the two generates more "profit" (or "less loss"...

Sec of Transportation will hopefully be someone with executive experience that also has served in a government role. That's not a long list for sure. The sad part is that very few projects can get going quickly. I'm curious, are there any actual plans/preliminary work done on replacing the...

While I agree that your vision mirrors mine (an on time, well serviced quality product that makes the experience "memorable" and worth repeating), others may regard our same vision as taxpayer subsidized "luxury" (I always have to contain my laughter when someone uses luxury) or "vacation"...

Because I do not believe their current structure from HR to politics will allow it.

I define success as on time with quality onboard service and experience first and foremost. I quietly advocate that AMTRAK take care of hauling coach, slumbercoach, and basic food service portions of the routes and then sublet / lease/ farm out the above the wheels operation of the food and...

Agreed. As I recall, some of Amtrak's biggest route cuts happened under Democrat administrations. I also think it is dangerous to paint Dems and Repubs with broad strokes. The truth is, NO ONE really knows how this new president will advance a rail agenda. My biggest gripe with rail...

I think overall, the obstructionist style Republicans may have to eat some crow before this is all over with. I'm quite optimistic that Trump and the Congress will push through a more aggressive pro-rail policy than any prior Republican or Democrat administration. We all know on here that...

I think the time frame it takes to complete them are inhibitors to success. And the lawsuits...well......they are a problem. I also, as conservative as I am, do not think that "Buy America" is smart. It ought to be "buy the best".

As a conservative, I disagreed with Mica's tactics. I line up more Trumpian with his assessment of our passenger rail infrastructure is so far behind other countries. Unfortunately, most want to attack the problem with just throwing more money at the problem. I think California can benefit...

As others have stated, I would think Amtrak could actually get a boost from Trump. Not sure about the LD trains, but the day trains could really get a pop.