A FEW schedules can apparently accidentally be used for overnight, between-work/business-hours travel. All of Amtrak's schedules could be carded for such daily regional and local commuting. The schedules between Boston and DC could be an exception since sections of those trains should continue on as the Chicago-bound trains, or at least connect very soon before morning departures of those trains to arrive the next morning in Chicago and the reverse schedules from there to the East Coast. The feasibility for much greatly increased revenue ridership from such scheduling is apparent.
But, AMTRAK could then be an actual in-demand travel option depended on by masses of commuters. Would that bring AMTRAK's apparent status as a high-paying job for hordes of superfluous spreadsheet bureaucrats whose jobs are largely merely to document the subsidy needed to pay their high salaries into question? The sufficient revenue from packed trains to pay for operation of those trains, the shops, maintenance of way, station and compensation to the host railroads might isolate the additional subsidy apparently needed to pay for bureaucracy. That might not be politically correct.
Moreover, actual passengers using the trains for serious business, commercial and personal business travel might pose a crowded appearance to otherwise sparsely-populated cars. That might detract from the exclusive feeling that some retired, well-heeled or otherwise unemployed leisure riders enjoy on their largely uselessly scheduled, taxpayer subsidized, what would otherwise be very efficient though actually arguably wasted intercity dinner trains.
Overnight travel service could easily be afforded to good-money-paying passengers between Minneapolis and Kansas City (Not much business in or between those towns? How many arguably wasteful hour-long air flights are between those towns every morning and evening?) and, Kansas City and Dallas/Ft Worth (with incidental other cities usable in between as now). But, as mentioned before, there will be loads of reasons cited, or merely stated with no sensible explaination, why and how this is so unworkable. It is SO unworkable for many of us to use AMTRAK as a serious passenger service now that it takes the taxpayers to pay for something (not necessarily the actual service provided but, again, perhaps much of the bureaucracy!) we aren't willling to pay for voluntarily since we can't use it....
