Now if we can add the Desert Wind and the Pioneer to the Zephyr and make them all daily... that would be one heck of a train through Illinois and Iowa!
And Utah!
It would, but that would also be the wrong thing to do. A much better idea would be to leave the CZ alone and run a combined DW & Pioneer at a different time so as to provide a second frequency to the route between SLC & Chicago.
As much as a second daily frequency on a major long-distance line would be awesome, if equipment is an issue, what about doing a combined DW and Pioneer meeting up in SLC? In other words, run from Washington/Oregon through Idaho and down into SLC, continuing down through St. George, Vegas, and Los Angeles (basically, providing a second route between L.A. and the PNW, only going a bit inland instead of following the coast)?
If we do get enough equipment to start a separate DW and Pioneer service, I would vote for the Pioneer to run east through Wyoming and then south through Colorado into New Mexico to provide connectivity to those unserved communities. Once we get the network linked up, then we can look at more frequencies.
Of course, you could also argue the other way--do something limited but do it well: run two daily frequencies along the CZ's route and attract the ridership, after which we can expand to new territories. Perhaps that strategy may be more successful in the long run.
If you had to choose between status quo (existing routes and once-daily [at most] frequencies) or dropping one of Amtrak's existing routes and providing a second daily frequency along it (or making the SL daily), what would you pick and which route, if applicable, would you drop and which one would you add the frequency to?
