Battalion,battalion51 said:The plan Amfleet presents is among the possiblities that is being thrown around. The main goal of the daily train to NOL from MIA is the connection to the City of New Orleans. If you look at the Sunset's numbers it does support service from ORL-NOL easily. Once you get past NOL you are looking at a train with maybe sixty people on board total. There is no way that you will see the entire Sunset run daily, it just aint gonna happen. Although Mr. Gunn doesn't want to have to terminate service to the few people the Sunset does serve, but it's a question of economics, is it worth our while and equipment to run a train that carries sixty people?
First while I suspect that at this time of the year you may be correct about the number of riders past NOL. Howevevr, during the summer months the Sunset does better than 60 people west of NOL.
However even as you say the numbers don't justify daily service west of NOl, you also overlook the very reason that the numbers aren't better. People need to know that the train will be there every day of the week for them. When it comes to long distance trains, the two worst performers for Amtrak are the Sunset & the Cardinal. Both are trains that only run 3 times a week.
People can't plan their travels and vacations around that major inconvienence. Making the above trains daily will increase ridership. Amtrak already proved this when the Eagle went daily and ridership soared.