Allen - I read your Reno trip report and it sounds like you had a good time. ReTrac is coming along right on schedule. Amtrak moved into their new "building" (a portable modular trailer) last Tuesday 4/13. I went down there yesterday to pick up some tickets for a trip I'm taking on the Starlate in July and guess what? The new station doesn't have a computer yet! The agent Jim told me they might have one by this Friday if they're lucky. Right now he has to write out tickets by hand. The Retrac folks didn't set up a computer connection line over there yet. They were installing a payphone inside while I was down there. To make things worse they completely forgot about installing a PA system (it's nice to have since most our passengers are tourists and want confirmation three times that the train in the station is theirs). I laughed when I saw the ten two-seater garden benches inside that are expected to serve as the waiting rooms seats for the next few years. The list goes on and on... At least the platform is decent, long enough, and the train will only block one of our street crossings unless it has more than five or six express cars which isn't the case very often. Still curious why they didn't build a high level platform though.
Back to the Vegas subject, I was surprised to find the little clip of info that the project isn't quite dead. At least there is a related study going on. I would be willing to bet if Amtrak could run five round trip trains a day from Union Station to Las Vegas (via Fullerton and a few convenient downtown LV stop locations) they would soon gain a significant market share more than the airlines and buses. This is, of course, assuming they ran the service on time, had pleasant on board crew members, and offered a few amenities like the at seat entertainment on the Cascades. Both regions are large enough to support this type of corridor service on a daily basis and it will eventually happen, it is just a matter of time.
