I'm just wondering why there's no Thruway connection from Osceola to Des Moines, and why no connection was considered in the Zephyr PIP. As it stands, there's a decent amount of Des Moines traffic that comes and goes at Osceola (you often get 30 people boarding and disembarking...that's nothing to sneeze at), but there's no reliable link short of hiring a cab or calling a limousine (that is, a car-and-driver) service, which can get very expensive.
Des Moines is big enough that I would think they could sell close to a full bus worth of seats if there were one on offer (and even at less than that, bus operations can be cheap enough that you'd cover the bus cost with a low load factor). The main reason I can see this not being done is that the Zephyr is crowded enough as it is, and there's no good way to accommodate the extra ridership (i.e. this would wreak havoc with load factors).
Des Moines is big enough that I would think they could sell close to a full bus worth of seats if there were one on offer (and even at less than that, bus operations can be cheap enough that you'd cover the bus cost with a low load factor). The main reason I can see this not being done is that the Zephyr is crowded enough as it is, and there's no good way to accommodate the extra ridership (i.e. this would wreak havoc with load factors).