vulgar_newcomer:
I don't see what of your post addresses the fact that Amtrak, as a whole, loses money every single year. Or the fact that it's widely unpopular. Or that it's been hopelessly mismanaged.
And don't patronize. I am FULLY aware of every point you brought up.
Again, it had naught to do with what I said, but still. Only a handful of services make money, and even fewer routes break even. Outside of the NE Corridor, Amtrak is a shadow of a rail operator (and let us not forget that Amtrak owns no part of the NEC in MA and nothing from New Rochelle to New Haven). And there's a very good reason why Amtrak loses money: the only things it really cares about is the NEC. And hey-presto, it's a profitable and popular enterprise. But only on the NEC. The rest of the country sees an entirely different Amtrak.
I didn't even mention the travesty that high speed rail is practically nonexistent in the US (with only Acela, again, only on the NEC). There are no dedicated high speed rail lines in the US (again, it's a farce to call the NEC a high-speed line; NS and CSX, among others, have trackage rights, which completes defeats the purpose of a dedicated high speed line).
Not that Amtrak can really aspire to offer high speed services elsewhere. It doesn't have the money, and will never get it.
What the US needs is something akin to BR and the British Railways Board (1965-1994). Amtrak has proven itself inept at providing passenger services to the vast majority of the country. Why? Because it's only really interested in the NE Corridor and its auxiliaries. It's doing this because it seeks to maximize profit, as a corporation should. As a government funded entity, this is not acceptable (which of course runs into the area of requiring more funding). Rather than provide services to as many people as possible, it's concentrated all its efforts on a single 500 mile stretch. But even then, it's not being aggressive. Their proposal for 220mph travel on the NEC is moving at a glacial pace, 30 years behind other projects with similar aims (barring China's exceptional 5000 miles of dedicated lines in only 6 years). Aside from the belated entry, it's taking the least aggressive path to achieve this.
Amtrak mirrors the productivity of Congress. What's amazing is that people are interested enough in rail travel to make the NEC and a few other routes profitable. Clearly it's something that Americans want (and definitely need).
The only kind of rail service that actually provides quality services at fair prices to as many as possible is a nationalized system. High speed rail is a further necessity (one that basically has to be built on the former, if any progress is expected). How can we expect high speed rail if even basic services are out of reach for Amtrak?
Amtrak has proven that a government cannot simply hand off a basic service to a profit-seeking corporation. Conrail was somewhat different; freight services have never been as threatened as passenger. All Conrail needed was basic reorganization and with minimal government intervention, because it's far easier to turn a profit on freight in the US. Amtrak has basically failed in its once-chartered duty to provide national rail services. Clearly it failed. I posit that it failed because it has no money, little public support, and no interest in providing services outside its profit-making regions.
The only way to remedy these problems is nationalize passenger services in the US, invest a shit ton of money on dedicated lines (people don't support things in anticipation of better services, they support existing services), and aggressively pursue what we've lacked for so long. The only viable alternative is to make Amtrak a statutory corporation and allow the government direct control without being the owner.
