I think that Amtrak's current "leadership" is dreaming (or smoking?) if they think that any of the railroads that are involved with their proposals of expanding these smaller corridors around the country are even remotely interested or willing to participate in making any of them happen. Just look at the billions(!) of dollars the Union Pacific wanted to extort out of Amtrak to be able to add four more weekly frequencies to the Sunset Limited, or restore the Wind or Pioneer. The private railroads want to participate with Amtrak about as much as I look forward to my next colonoscopy. On the other hand, I do believe many of the points that Mr. Seldon raises have some validity, especially when it comes to the LDT segment of Amtrak's business. They may be "slow and serve few markets well," but the demand is out there for them. The problem is that we have no real clue as to what their true financials are with Amtrak's dubious accounting practices. Just as with the private railroads when they wanted out of the passenger business back in the day, Amtrak, for whatever reason, appears to load them down with all kinds of questionable charges that don't give us the true picture. Snow removal costs in Miami come to mind off the top of my head for one. I truly do not believe they lose anywhere near the amount of money that Amtrak claims they do, nor do I believe that the NEC makes anywhere near (or any at all) of the money that is claimed there. The capital backlog is claimed to be how many tens of billions of dollars there? What the future holds for Amtrak is anyone's guess, but it seems like their better days, perhaps the late 1980's and early 1990's, are well behind them, unless they get leadership in there that actually cares about running this railroad.