On Friday, January 6, 2017 at 5:15:20 PM UTC-5, Clark F Morris wrote:

> Having ridden several of the major trains while they were still decent
> such as the Capitol Limited in 1964 and the 20th Century Limited in
> 1964 or 5, they probably are beside the point today.  I believe that
> the major need is usable service so that the smaller communities are
> connected with each other and with major centers on the line.  This
> means shorter trains and a lot more of them so same day round trips
> can be made.  Based on trends in Europe, I wonder how much food
> service, if any, is required on most trains and how much viability
> there is in sleeping car service given the relatively few people per
> car.  Properly described, the Madison - Milwaukee - Chicago service
> made sense although the trains may have had too much capacity for the
> Madison - Milwaukee stretch.  The Cincinnati - Columbus - Cleveland
> train was too slow and infrequent to pass the smell test.  Going back
> to old Official Guides, I was surprised at how slow the NYC service
> was.

One of the challenges is that railroading is extremely expensive.
Modern safety requirements, like PTC and heavier trains and track,
have only added to the cost burden, not reduced it.  So, providing
train service on a light route probably wouldn't be economical.

A modern light-rail line with POP should be economical to provide,
but for whatever reason, their cost recovery tends to be lousy.

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