You seem to think that running a railroad is as easy as turning on a light switch. The SCL and ACL ran trains because they were mandated to by the federal government, they didn't make any money off of them. Railroads made there profit off the express (LTL) business not the people and that disappeared when they were no longer the fastest mode of transportaion. How much do you think the fuel alone for one round trip between Las Vegas and Los Angeles would be? That would be two locomotives not one. The Desert Wind and Pioneer never made any money and it wasn't soley because of UP's poor dispatching. Where is your customer base? For example the Pioneer: Seattle to Salt Lake City. Your largest customer base is going to be between Seattle and Portland, Boise is a small town so your next major urban center is what? SLC the end of the line. There is not really much between Portland and SLC and the trip takes you about 20 hours if you are on time. I could drive that in twevle for cheaper than what Amtrak charged or would charge and I would have a vehicle to use when I reached my destination. I could fly and be there in less than 12 hours from the time I leave my doorstep to the time I reach my destination. You've already killed your profit with the cost of labor because your train crew doesn't work for free and you don't have any money left over for fuel or to maintain your train, stations, etc... Lets raise taxes so we can all ride trains because your not going to pay for them any other way. The Vancouver to Eugene corridor is a good example of a good corridor (which I have ridden many tiems) with good ridership, but you know what? With all that traffic on I-5 it is still faster to drive and it always will be until that speed limit is raised to over 100mph.