So the bottom line is that Amtrak just doesn't have enough sleepers to meet the demand. No wonder they are losing money. When I look at most consists I only see two sleeper cars (AutoTrain may be the exception). You end up with maybe 25 or less bedrooms/roomettes per train. I can see the problem. Since many of these trains sell out; you can't make much money without adding inventory. I am surprised that Amtrak hasn't adressed this . Heck if you can't afford new sleepers start refurbishing and bring back the Heritage cars. If they are refurbished correctly and are fresh there is nothing wrong with them.
Aside from the fact that Amtrak doesn't have many, if any, Heritage sleepers left to bring back there are other issues with doing so. The first simply being the very hefty cost to refurbish them and get them back. Next, the costs of keeping them on the road are much higher than the costs of keeping the current fleet on the road. Then there is the issue of having dissimilar equipment which can cause problems both with passengers expecting one thing and getting another, along with what happens when you've sold rooms in one type of car and something goes wrong and you have to replace that car with a car that has a different room configuration.
Some folks seem to blame the lack of sleepers on the fact that space needs to be provided for the crew. However, on most routes much of the crew (he conductors and the SCA.s) stay up all night also as they need to be available at each stop to assist boarding and departing passengers. Only the waiters and the chefs get to sleep.
First, the sleeping car attendant already has their own room in the sleeper. That will never go away, as that's where the call board is. That room was never a revenue room. Additionally the SCA does not stay up all night, their contract guarantees them several hours of sleep per night, 4 IIRC. Some SCA's however trade off with their partner in the next car. By doing that, one sleeps through the night outbound from their home base while the other works both cars, then they reverse things for the trip back home.
Now, when Amtrak retired the Heritage Dorm cars, at that time revenue rooms were lost to the cooks, waiters, 2-LSA's, and the coach attendants. Depending on train length and how sold out that train is, that could range from 6 to perhaps as many as 10 roomettes that are lost. The conductors never get a room as they don't work more than 12 hours before going off duty, so no room is lost to them.
Once Amtrak gets the new Viewliner baggage/dorm cars online, something that is still at least 3 years away at minimum I'd guess, then those revenue rooms being used by the crew will once again go back on sale to the public.
How can Amtrak ever be expected to turn a profit if they can't meet the demand? Amtrak simply just needs to add more sleepers. We are only talking about a few dozen cars. While they are at it they should also add more coaches on the NE corridor as many of those trains also sell out.
And again, Amtrak is trying to add more cars. But that also requires the cooperation of Congress and the White House to get them the money to buy them. They don't grow on trees.
As for the corridor, Amtrak is already adding coaches to trains on the corridor. A few years ago all Regionals were generally 6 cars only. Today it's not uncommon to find 7, 8, even 9 car trains on the corridor. And with more cars coming out of mothballs thanks to the Stimulus monies, it may be possible to add even more cars to the trains.