Correcting as best we can for Amtrak "allocated costs" fraudulence -- by removing the same amount of costs on each train for 2019 as I did in my 2018 model to reflect fake costs which are not short-term variable costs -- I find:
From 2018 to 2019 Amtrak managed to reduce the losses on the CZ, SWC, TE, and Sunset Limited. Unfortunately, losses have increased on the Cardinal. The CONO has slipped back from profit to loss. The Palmetto's profit has dropped.
In better news, the Capitol Limited has gone from loss to profit. The profits on the Star, Meteor, LSL, Crescent, Auto Train, EB, and have gone up.
This is all before the trashing of food service happened, of course. Since revenue was down on half the trains (the exceptions with increased revenue are the Cardinal, Silver Meteor, Southwest Chief, Coast Starlight, Lake Shore Limited, Crescent, and Auto Train), this implies that Amtrak found a number of ways to cut costs before trashing dining service (good for them?) -- or that Amtrak has reduced the allocation of costs to the LD trains.
(My model is based on the difference between the avoidable costs published in the bar chart by Boardman many years back and the Amtrak official allocated costs published for the same year. If Amtrak actually reformed the cost allocations my model would stop working. Amtrak should really just publish avoidable costs numbers.)
Reported cost drops are substantial and sudden on all the Eastern trains with dining cars, which probably indicates the removal of allocated "Heritage Diner" costs and the replacement with much cheaper "Viewliner Diner" costs. Capitol Limited also had sudden cost drops -- probably the early removal of the dining car, which was early enough to be in the figures in this case -- and the Star had larger drops, which was probably related to the removal of dining car service mid-2018. Other reported cost drops were seen for Auto Train, the Zephyr, and the Sunset Limited; not sure why in those cases.
The Cardinal's costs actually went *up* but revenues went up more. Gardner must hate that...
(Being of a conspiratorial mindset at the moment, I suspect that Stephen Gardner couldn't stand the increase in revenue on long-distance trains and decided to trash dining service on the Auto Train, Crescent, and Lake Shore Limited, and to the extent he could, on the Cardinal as well, in an attempt to reduce revenue. We all remember his attack on the Southwest Chief. The Coast Starlight's success seems to have escaped his eye, so expect an attack on it next. OK, maybe I'm being too paranoid.)
My bottom line conclusion: if the Cardinal and Sunset went daily, the Sunset, Chief, Zephyr, TE, and Capitol Limited would be roughly breakeven, most of the rest would be about $10 million profit per year each, with each of the Star and Meteor about $20 million and the Auto Train about $40 million. Before "allocations". Without trashing food service.
Losses can be expected to be higher for 2020 due to Amtrak's deliberate attempt to drive away customers.