You forget - Amtrak was never intended to succeed. It was a means to relieve the railroads of their passenger train burden until it could be allowed to quietly die except for the quasi-commuter operations.

To succeed, any transportation mode must be part of a system that gets you economically and reasonably from your desired point of origin to your desired destination in a timely manner. The long distance Amtrak system, at least in the West, has too many holes in it. There are many times I would have considered taking the train, but the nearest Amtrak station to me is about 150 miles away in Pasco, WA - but I'm only 2 miles from a former station of the Pioneer. As the nearest commercial airport is Boise about 125 miles, the Pioneer would have been a viable option.

As part of any train ride over an hour or two long, you have to provide some kind of decent beverage and meal service. It's like providing toilets - not anything you're going to make money on, but a definite necessity. Even replacing Amtrak trains with private high end cruise trains won't be a viable business model as the host railroads barely tolerate Amtrak and I highly doubt would offer to operate any private service.

Sadly - we may be seeing the last gasp of long distance trains.