bigtruckpete posted:So what happened if a railroad opted out? Did that mean they continued their own service? Or did they just abandon passenger service all together? Or something else?
The railroads that opted out the national system were required to continue their own service. However Amtrak made the decision which routes it wanted to drop so not all railroads were required to provide passenger services. 26 roads were deemed eligible to exchange passenger services to Amtrak in return for equipment and the right to run on their tracks. 20 roads took that option. As has been mentioned, Rio Grande, Southern, D&H, Rock Island, South Shore, The Georgia Railroad (and later Seaboard System) was permitted to run a mixed train, and finally the Reading ran it's own Philadelphia to Newark train that went to Conrail and finally NJT, but was dropped in 1982.
Prior to this, the federal government mandated passenger routes. When they inherited a broken system with beat up equipment the attitude changed and so did the regulations. Much like Conrail and the Staggers Act. Lots of passenger trains went away when Amtrak started as they should have.
