Amen! My theory is that until you get at least 4 (bare minimum) trains a day each way you aren't actually providing passenger service -- otherwise it's just a by-the-way if you have no other way to get there kind of thing.

For long-distance service, IMO Amtrak should be "cruise trains" for real (few stops, at major destinations, and charge for and really deliver first-class service - think AOE on a schedule?). Some are sort of like that now, and the cost of sleepers on Amtrak is too much for ordinary travelers already. If the little towns really need service for a couple of people a day, use a "Thruway" bus to cover the in-between stations or pay Greyhound to pick them up. The Builder shouldn't have to stop at East Cornstalk at 0300 for one person. Then, where there are more people, get serious about providing a useful frequency of service and (like in CA and the NE Corridor) the riders will come. Our Friends In Congre$$ of course will never let that happen even if there was a chance of the freight RRs going along.

For California Amtrak services, the farebox return stayed down in the teens-30% range (i.e. "nobody wants to ride" because it doesn't fit a real-world personal schedule) until the service got up to 5 or 6 trains a day each way. Now that there's some real service people ride it and rely on it, it's become a realistic alternative to driving in some circumstances, and the farebox has come up to around 50% or better. All for "conventional" service at 60-80 mph (OK, a few stretches of 90 on the Surfliner) in between stops, freight trains, and slow orders.

Really, it's the same reason Greyhound has dropped all but the mainline runs -- the locals never did make money, and were cross-subsidized by profits from the mainline runs in Regulation days. Railroads were forced to cross-subsidize from freight to run passenger trains. Amtrak relieved the railroads of that burden, and deregulation ditto for Greyhound. What's left (Amtrak; local transit, commuter, rural bus service) is tax-subsidized -- as a society and an economy we need it but it won't pay for itself.