I grew up in the newspaper business, so I'm pretty leery of conspiracy theories. On the other hand, I've done historical research that found things that were worse than imagined. And a lot of time, it involves people who think they are doing the right thing. In the Pioneer's case, it was probably hard in DC to visualize why a bunch of rain-soaked people wearing Pendleton shirts or Columbia jackets wanted to be connected with the really important parts of the U.S.The conspiracy theories come home!
Wait, but I agree with this. Do everything possible to prevent expansion. New routes or just 10 block further south to a airport station.
“Built in fatal flaw” might be my new favorite terminology.
The attached pdf might shed some light. In the first years of Amtrak, the Oregonian was still the voice of Big Business, including railroad companies, and the Oregon Journal was the traditional supporter of popular improvements and the little guy (slogan on a banner flown by an eagle: "She flies with her own wings.").
When the Oregonian carried an exclusive story from its DC bureau that said that Amtrak had a study saying that the Portland-Boise-East train was worse than the official negative study, I called a friend at the Journal with the facts. (Younger readers may have trouble visualizing the dynamics of the interplay of two or more daily newspapers in a city.)