Question well answered by everyone. Railroads often used passenger service as a PR tool and draw for their freight customers......Food service rarely paid its way and was considered part of the cost of providing service. Remember the ICC and state PUC's frequently mandated rail service continue in the 1950's and 1960's where some roads would have ended it long ago. There was that wonderful niche provided by the Pullman Company. But when publicly subsidized air travel and highways post WW II made it all go sour, no "private" railroad wanted anything to do with passenger trains, a fact modern day Republicans never seem to connect. Yes, it is a service, a public convenience, a transportation alternative......and we live in a civilized, publicly responsible country........don't we???????
ARD