VistaDomeScott posted:Amtrak is per the law creating it, required to operate national long distance passenger service. This was covered in recent hearings. The Congress is not wavering on maintaining national service.
Absolutely, But there is a big difference between requiring something and paying for it. The government has lots of "unfunded mandates". Amtrak needs to come up with about a billion dollars of Capex for either the Superliner inspections or the Viewliner replacements. This could result in a train with two or three cars where the demand could support two or three or more times that number; but the cars are unavailable. That is already happening for certain trains. In 2018 I was at the Naperville station where two elderly ladies were trying to reserve rooms on the Empire builder and were told they could not reserve more than 6 months ahead and there were no available rooms within that limit. They have complied with the law but...
