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You know for a fact that they don't exist now?
I think the reason for this is the skeletal nature of much of Amtrak where much of the routes are covered by a single train per day (or less in some cases). If there was a local Chicago - Cleveland - Buffalo train then that would not get delayed for connecting LD trains. It would also allow adding more local stops on the shorter distance train and making the LD train more of an "express".
How would you know that 80% of the people on the LSL are going strictly to or from Chicago? Chicago and New Orleans are the only (I think) 2 connections between western and eastern trains and since you would pretty much have to spend the night in NOL, that leaves just Chicago. I do agree that it would be highly desirable to add a "local" or regional train that parallels the LSL that wouldn't have to wait for late western connecting trains. But given the huge crowds I have seen coming from the trains to the metropolitan lounge in Chicago, it appears to me that there are a heck of a lot of people making connections there rather than just using it as a starting or ending point. I travel from NM to Ohio via Amtrak, so am interested in connections that work so that I don't have to stay overnight in Chicago as Chicago is not my goal.
That makes sense too for pax who are not riding the train endpoint to endpoint. Intermediate stops are often very poorly served by once daily LD trains. Cleveland OH is a good example of this on your NYP-CHI route. Current trains only serve. Cleveland in the middle of the night. Having more frequent trains would allow more convenient travel times for passengers going to and from such cities. I would imagine there might be many people who otherwise might ride Amtrak but avoid doing so because they don’t want to deal with 2AM arrivals or departures.
I meant a Buffalo-Chicago traveler as an example. Pre-pandemic data on the west coast trains, as an example, shows coach passengers are generally using long distance trains for segment travel, while sleeper passengers are using these trains for longer distances, including end-to-end. Coach passengers by definition make up the majority of travelers on Amtrak. Thus, it's reasonable to deduce that while some people do of course transfer, that is not the main reason why passengers are using long distance trains on the western routes, in terms of connecting in Chicago.
True indeed.
I would think that in that case most route managers (assuming they are competent) would do the same and we wouldn't be far from where we are now. Wouldn't there still need to be maintenance personnel to handle cars and send them out first? Not sure how route managers would exactly help that, unless the pressure they'd put on Amtrak would cause them to try to scramble out more cars.
Agreed on all points but wanted to zero in on this, as it has been on my mind. Considering that the larger timing and scheduling issues require major policy changes, here is something more practical in the short term: Make the menus feel local, not just in the dining car but in the cafe car too. How difficult would it be at longer stops to on-board some local beers, even, say, frozen burritos from a local purveyor in Albuquerque, or frozen BBQ sandwiches from a local purveyor in Kansas City to sell in the cafe car?
