The airline is the better business model here.

What the hell is the point of spending money running trains, if there is no revenue to support the expenditure, just because nobody can buy a damn ticket. Or if no one can ride anyway, because they can't find out if their train is even running that day; which they often aren't for the lamest of reasons.

The last time I tried to catch the first morning Surfliner to San Diego, the damn thing was at least an hour late - apparently a common problem for the early trains. I had already started back to my car, when it finally came in eleventy nine minutes late, almost on the following train's time. Who knows where the hell that train was!

So I had to run to catch it. When I complained, the conductor told me that they couldn't seem get any of the engineers to show up to work on time for those early trains! Haven't been on an Amtrak train in months.

Now the MetroLink and the Coaster to Oceanside? You could set your watch! And still get to San Diego by train - albeit a bit slower (more stops and a train change). But what difference does speed make, if the speedy train shows up already late, or not at all.

Yep - if you can't sell tickets, not spending the money running trains would mean a much smaller operating deficit - but then no trains either.