The Hilltopper was a modifaction of the Mountaineer. The Mountaineer which started in 1974 ran from Norfolk to Cattlettsburg whereThe Hilltopper went from New York to Washington as 66/67 with a sleeper, cut off the sleeper, and continued to Petersburg, Roanoke, and ultimately the grandiosely named "Tri-State Station" in Cattlettsburg, KY. It was the infamous "Train To Nowhere". In many ways, it was the perfect train to back up any criticisms of Amtrak. Indeed, it was indicative of everything that was wrong with Amtrak in its early years.
It was politically motivated, as was the Mountaineer. It served no major population bases after its leaving Washington. It provided a Washington connection to the Cardinal, sure- except the Cardinal already went through Washington. It served a few towns that the Cardinal didn't, but in general most of them were near enough to the Cardinal's stations that they could easily serve most or all the people who would have taken the Cardinal.
Now, I am all in favour of more trains, but I think they should be more spread out. People talk about a second frequency for, say, the Southwest Chief. I disagree with these people. I think Amtrak should first create a broad, spread out network that eliminates various empty areas before we create distinct second frequencies on various routes. BTW: the Southwest/Super Chief/Limited route was briefly served by a second frequency, the Chief, in 1972.
Rather, I think we should have several different trains passing through the same population bases. For example, the California Zephyr could be supplemented by a "City of San Francisco, a "San Francisco Chief", or both, each running over their original route- better than it could be served by a second train running the California Zephyr's route.
The Hilltopper was a poor use of resources. Amtrak in the late 70s had the northeast-to-midwest map criss-crossed by more than a half-dozen trains- Cardinal, Hilltopper, National Limited, Broadway Limited, Lake Shore Limited, Shenandoah, Niagara Rainbow, many of which served stations within minutes of each other.
Meanwhile, all of South Dakota, most of Wyoming, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa and Nebraska saw few trains.
Now, we'd all like to see more trains. I know I would. But their location and implementation needs to be better suited to serving America as a whole, and creating an overall system, then to benefit somebody like Stagger's own constituents.
it combined with the Cardinal with through coach and sleeper to Chicago. The people along the former N&W line had been lobbying for a return of passenger service since the Pocahantas was discontinued between Norfolk and Cincinnati with a good connection to Chicago on April 30, 1971 when Amtrak began. Unfortunately, the tracks between Chicago and Cincinnati had deteriorated and the Cardinal/Mountaineer were fregently late. The Mountaineer did well in the first couple of years, but with the frequent tardiness, passengers along the line quit riding. Amtrak proposed to discontinue the Mountaineer, but the powers to be in Congress wanted to preserve service along the former N&W route. The Hilltopper ran down the corridor continuing to Petersburg, VA where it turned west and continued to Cattlettsburg, KY. Due to the revised schedule, the connection to the Cardinal was severed. The Hilltopper only ran a couple of years before it was discontinued.
The trains you mentioned in the 1970s did not serve stations within minutes of each other. In fact the Amtrak routes of the 1970s were skelatal compared to the routes that crossed the same area until April 30, 1971. As an example, Penn Central ran 3 trains west bound and 4 trains east bound via the former PRR line from New York to Chicago and 3 trains in each direction via the former NYC line through Buffalo and Cleveland until April 30, 1971.