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He bought UNP, NSC and BNI stock. Just before BRK purchased BNI, BRK owned close to 10 million shares of UNP stock. That holding was sold - after all, owning one of the two western railroads outright and a chunk of another would not look good to regulators.

But, at the end of the day, he selected BNSF over UP. I'm sure he had his reasons. No doubt, that was probably the talk of the town in certain circles in Omaha for awhile. He's not known as the "Oracle of Ft. Worth."

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BNSF tolerates Amtrak at best, only because it is an efficient machine and having "one a day" doesn't impact BNSF as much.

BNSF knows how to mix their freight trains with all sorts of passenger trains -- not just once-per-day Amtrak trains. Observe how they keep their Fullerton Jct.-Soto and Chicago-Aurora line segments fluid. They should give lessons to the other Class Ones.

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UP, on the other hand, is still trying to fix the poorly executed UP/SP/SSW/DRGW merger of 1996 - 14 years later, it is still trying to fix it.

They had trouble digesting CNW. You'd think they would have learned something from that experience so as to not repeat it with the DRGW/SP/SSW absorption.

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ATSF + BN, in comparison, was quite the well-rehearsed orchestra.

Agreed. When the ex-GN and NP lines are frozen over in the winter months, the ex-ATSF transcon comes in handy.

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Amtrak is just a rock thrown into the unoiled machine - it's no wonder UP doesn't want anything to do with Amtrak.

So, apparently what you're saying is that Amtrak has to be penalized and chased off the property because UP had/has all sorts of problems in digesting its merger/absorption partners.

Hmmmm. It's not Amtrak's fault that UP can't pull off a successful merger.

Mention was made that the Desert Wind began operations in 1977. That was before the merger mania took hold. At that time, UP, the original UP managed by Bailey and Kennefick, had a pro-Amtrak attitude. It was only after the UP/MP/WP merger took place and all the ex-MoPac people (led by Dick Davidson) started calling the shots that the relationship with Amtrak started to sour.

I guess Joseph Boardman should have just told that LA TIMES reporter the truth. Instead of laying on the B.S., it would have been so much easier to have just said that Amtrak isn't running a train to Vegas because UP doesn't want them to.