The UP situation, and the difficulty in general of maintaining any reasonable schedule mixed with freights, is why Desert Xpress proposed a separate HSR line. Unfortunately, after going through all the necessary preliminaries, they ran into a combination of the recession and a "NO!!" Congress & Administration when it came to getting a LOAN for construction. They were clear up front that it was a starter line, and would need to be extended for best effect; though doing the first extension as part of a highway project that will probably be building only environmental documents and lawsuit defense for 10 years (assuming its funding survives) might not have been the best idea. They did NOT use PB for a consultant. Suspect that it's dead now; if not for the other reasons, then part of their route is now covered by an approved solar power plant.

Attaching extra cars for tourists to a commuter train is usually not a great idea. Except possibly for mid-day runs, the trains already have the maximum number of cars that can be hauled with one locomotive and make schedule, and that will fit the stations (which are designed for that size train of course). And commuter trains make numerous stops at glorified bus stations - not desirable for tourists. Now if they wanted to operate a lounge car for the commuters and accessible only from within the train so station length would be less of a problem ... hmmm?

Ultimately, I suspect as others have stated that X Train is a stock scam. If they actually get any cars fixed up, they will almost certainly be sold to somebody else when the inevitable collapse/bankruptcy happens. Fixing old (worn-out) Chicago commuter cars for a long-distance operation seemed a little dicey to me in the first place.