They should have hired somebody from Southwest, where they have a point-to-point network rather than a bunch of hub n spoke stuff like Delta. Railroading is inherently point to point; it's linear and absent expresses and limiteds the end to end time isn't the main criterion (somebody should have explained that to Kopp when he was writing the CAHSR law).

That said, he is at least consistent. Similar points made in an interview in Trains a while back.

One of the columnists in the current Trains issue makes the Amtrak dining cars sound like God's Gift to Restaurant Entrepreneurs - as in, let the coach passengers back in, turn it over to a Real Restaurateur, and watch the profits flow. The assumptions behind the item are flaky at best, but who knows: the Delta guy was very much into outsourcing at the airline (regional airline companies for the spokes, all the meal service outsourced, most of the maintenance outsourced (most big airlines ship heavy maintenance offshore).