Excuse me!Oh come on-- you act like the SL is a living thing that Amtrak is out to exterminate... You have nothing to complain about, if anything, Amtrak could have dealt with the SL issue a long time ago if it weren't for a minority of people complaining about restoring service in a precise way and demanding greater service than they were getting originally.I think it rather apparent that Amtrak was out to get the Sunset long before this report came out.People may get the impression that you think Amtrak is just out to get the SL.
Amtrak's mission is to run a national network of trains. Six months after Katrina CSX told Amtrak that they could restore service. Since that point Amtrak has done nothing but find excuses as to why they cannot restore service, from bad platforms to the track not being ready and on and on. Even now, forget for a moment this report. During the meeting in Cali where they outlined the possible plan to run the Eagle daily, they stated that it would take 3 years to train the crews to restore service. At most it should take 6 to 8 months.
And in the meantime, Amtrak keeps pestering the states down there to pay for the service. If a state asks Amtrak to pay for service within a state, fine, then that state should pay for said service. But a train that crosses multiple states is Amtrak's responsability.
It's time to get off the pot and either cancel this train outright or restore it. Bottom line. No excuses.