It's hardly a 'new' model, and has nothing to do with what is happening to Amtrak's cost recovery policies mandated by Congress. It has everything to do with state legislation passed more than 10 years ago, and the other regions seeing how well Cap Corridor has worked (the only one to 'go local' in the first round). So last year the Surfliner corridor set up a JPA to take over, and now SJ. The official policy (perhaps with a little nudging by various politicians) since as early as Caltrain seems to be that the state will fund and manage the startup and buy some equipment, but ongoing operations should be managed locally. It just took a bit longer for the local politics to resolve themselves with the SJ & Surfliner than it did for Caltrain and Cap Corridor.