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Considering how much armchair analysis and speculation board members engage in about all other operations of Amtrak, why do so many here treat henry's financial analysis and speculation as if he's violating some taboo? It's not religion, it's not magical and it's not the Bridge of Eternal Peril...

I want to add my own thanks to both John and PaulM. Even for the low-mileage corridor trips I do, your sites are invaluable. Many thanks for your contributions to this community.

If PTV means "personal television" (ie, seatback monitors), they haven't been used in years and have been removed from a number of (most of?) the coaches as part of the overhaul process.

Henry: I read your book prior to our group outing [pun intended] on the Zephyr. Prior to that trip, my only experience was short turns on the Surfliner, so I had a newbie's concerns about venturing outside the safe cocoon of Amtrak California. Your book was invaluable.

A few years ago, four of us (two gay couples) did a Zephyr run from CHI to EMY. OBS treated us as we would expect to be treated. No, wait, I take that back. Some of the dining car attendants all but adopted us for the duration of the trip. But then, they were black women. You know what they say...

Apparently, Boardman was asked if he was thinking about ordering new Superliners, maybe tacking them onto the states' bi-level order. His response was, "No, we plan to keep refurbishing." Note that he didn't say he'd order new Superliners "when money becomes available" or "after we replace...

However, English speakers don't say, "There are left-over spaghettis in the refrigerator," (not valid in New Jersey) but they will say there are "panninis" in the refrigerator.

Can I mention my own pet peeve of people calling a particular brand of upscale store Nordstrom's? Or that pannini is already plural, just as spaghetti is plural? Speaking of plural's, they don't take apostrophe's. Class dismissed.

If the Democrats were really far left they would have nominated Kucinich. If you think Obama qualifies as "far left" it goes to show how far to the right the ground has shifted in this country.

As someone who occasionally goes to Palm Springs for a weekend, I'd love to see regular train service. But… PS is all sprawl and low-density development. Very, very little of it is walkable and it doesn't have good transit. Even if you could get a shuttle from the miles-out-of-town station...

This.

Between Red and Purple interlining, service between Metro Center and LAUS is every five minutes during evening hours, so I wouldn't be too concerned about long lines.

1. I think onboard ticketing is about $8-9 extra. Don't know for sure about credit cards, but considering they're accepted at the snack counter I don't see why you can't use them for ticketing. 2. Don't know. 3. I thought I once overheard a TA tell a passenger he could use a Surfliner train...

Without knowing where you're staying it's difficult to say if you'll have trouble getting there. You can always call a taxi, but you may be able to use Metro.

Now it all makes sense. Thank you for posting that! It's a huge change to the Surfliner SOP.

Get ready to be called a whiner, you whiner!

I suspect you're onto something. In February, user Ryan did a cost-per-mile analysis of the PS. Using his analysis as a base, I ran comparable calculations using the current fares. Between then and now, a Los Angeles to San Diego run went up about 4¢ per mile. LAX to Oceanside (a shorter trip)...

Details, details.

I can't blame them either, but is it really a smart policy? The greater the Amtrak price differential, the more that riders will switch to Metrolink (or stop taking trains), so Amtrak raises prices to compensate, pushing more riders to Metrolink (or cars), which makes Amtrak raise prices… On...

Earlier this year, a 40-mile trip from LAX to Santa Ana (to visit family) was $13. Today I looked it up and it's $16, a $3 jump. Three bucks may not sound like much, but that's an almost 25% increase for a trip that's only 30 miles. Irvine (to visit a friend) has gone from $14 to $17 for a...