I need to go to Los Angeles from Phoenix at the end of Oct. and the trade show I am going to has deal that if you take Amtrak they will give you $50 cash and free taxi from Union Station. I thought it might be kind of fun until I looked into it. First I would have two options, either leave from Flagstaff - 2 hour drive or Maricopa - 1 hour drive (how ever cannot return to Maricopa. If I left from there I would have to return to Flagstaff and then take a 2:30 bus ride to phoenix leaving me an hour from my car.) I chose Flagstaff. Then I found out that the one trip per day is 11 hours and 18 minutes with the return being 10 hours 21 minutes. The cost was not bad, $128 so would be a net of $78. However both ways leave in the evening and travel all night. I then looked at Southwest Airlines, $155.60 round trip with 9 flights per day to choose from and 1 hour 30 minutes each way. So to save $77.60 cents I would have to spend an additional 18+ hours traveling (sleeping in a seat). I could drive in about 11 hours round trip for around $120 in gas. I decided at that point that it really wouldn't be that much fun. My point to all of this i that there have been many arguments on here about Amtrak, subsidies,etc. With the exception of only a few (mostly Eastern) runs, there is really no reason for it remain in existence.