Hey Daniel; great topic (though it's been awhile since your post!)... How did you hear of this train; how detailed were Amtrak's plans? How did they intend to pay for it? What are your sources? Leads for more information, images, books?
While most of my volunteer work on behalf of Amtrak is just to keep it alive year-to-year***, I have wondered why Amtrak's premier service is the Acela train & the NorthEast Corridor (NEC)? The answer is, of course, that's where Congress lives, who actually feed Amtrak its (near-starvation) funding on a (screwed up non-permanent) year-by-year basis... Amtrak probably would've been killed off, if it weren't covered with flags and run through Washington D.C.'s back yard! But really now, shouldn't our National Passenger Railroad Corporation's ("Amtrak's real name") focus on serving the nation, not just D.C. & N.E.C.? So why does its network miss any state (it misses several, & huge pieces of others)?
Back to your topic, if Amtrak had a flagship, shouldn't it be a long-distance train, ideally a transcon? Like "The Heartland Flyer", the actual train name ought to be determined by national competition, citizen buy-in, & publicity... but for a working title let's call it "The Tri-Cities" linking America's 3 largest: New York, Chicago, & Los Angeles: 1) Fast: and Amtrak's continual focus of equipment improvements, 2) Reliable: best On-Time-Performer, paying premium hotshot rates so host common carrier freight railroads ensure zero time in sidings, severe penalties if they do. Amtrak pays equally severe penalties if Amtrak fails to meet the schedule. Absolutely no transfers or layovers (as the nearest facsimile to this route would now at Chicago) 3) Shortest, sensible routing: with federal improvements to help double-track, lower grades, straighten curves), 4) run as an Express/ Limited (stopping at very few stations outside of New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles, yet building the network up by connecting trains/ Amtrak ThruWay buses timed to meet it).
Equipment? Yes! Amtrak shouldn't blow the chance to snatch up the complete trainset of the (now-bankrupt) Grand Luxe a.k.a. American Orient Express (AOE) before it is dismantled. Especially since 1) not one U.S. firm is manufacturing new mainline passenger railcars (I'd love to be wrong on this; does anyone know better? ...any more to the rumors of bankrupt Colorado Railcar's assets regrouping in Iowa?), 2) 2/3 of Amtrak's backlogged car repairs are for the NEC, not long-distance cars that offer more-revenue-seats-per-repair-dollar, 3) any process to convert idled auto plants & their skilled workforce to build other things will take time (is anyone with the will or brains making this happen?), & 4) some AOE equipment is historic in its own right, a marketing opportunity Amtrak has not taken. The AOE set would be a bargain at any price, and Amtrak its most likely capable & long-term owner... and since poor economy/ lack of rail-cruise business led to AOE's demise, the asking price could be quite reasonable... come to think of it, luring its experienced staff back, along with their 1st-class customer skills, would be another bargain at any price...
Getting the first Tri-Cities running might take a couple years, but the AOE set needn't sit in mothballs; it could be busy right now filling gaping holes on The Sunset Limited: kept together to either: 1) run Los Angeles through Orlando (restoring Amtrak's only transcontinental route) on one of the 4 days the Sunset doesn't now, or 2) run as a connecting train between Atlantic Coast Service (Tr.#'s 91/92, & 97/98) at Orlando to New Orleans, timed to meet the L.A. to New Orleans Sunset (Tr.# 1/ 2) there.
*** OK, want to ride it, instead of daydream about what never was? Do you suppose your legislator, or Amtrak planners have any idea what we're discussing right now? No, silence doesn't work! Once, to encourage citizens to contact their transit agency to support a transit project, I wrote & distributed a pre-printed postcard for the public to sign. Southern California Transit Advocates (www.socata.org), a grassroots transit group incorporated as the "501c(4)" form of Non-Profit Organization (geared toward political speech, but no tax write-offs), let me staple that postcard into member-copies of their newsletter, which now happens more or less monthly. Does sending transit postcards work? Instead of being downgraded, shelved, or killed (very likely possibilities at the time), the first phase of L.A. County M.T.A.'s Exposition Corridor is now under construction, second phase under a Joint Powers Authority in planning... and in light rail mode because of citizen-lobbying, perhaps in small part because some of the 500+/- postcards were signed & mailed to M.T.A.'s board. Another card was sent about relieving congestion at LAX airport by removing barriers to getting light rail and bus transit right inside LAX airport; L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's airport rep. mentioned he'd received 28 postcards, followed by an hour-long conversation with him about those issues at Sierra Club's Angeles Chapter Transportation Committee. MetroLink has responded to postcard critiques of their cab car design & branding scheme with multiple page letters. Transit entities themselves occasionally publish postcards promoting their projects, distributing them to the public to mail (to influence decisionmakers).... There are no downloads for my cards at So.Ca.T.A.'s website (positions taken aren't necessarily endorsed by So.Ca.T.A.); and there are no cards for a Tri-Cities train (yet... I'd like to research more, and gauge public opinion. I'm not a webster but have webster friends who'll follow this thread...) Meantime, if you'd like sample cards to sign-stamp-send, or use to compose your own handwritten letter (the most compelling form of correspondence, according to legislative staffers); a card for restoring New Orleans-Orlando service on Amtrak's Sunset Limited is available, and a couple current campaigns for transit & rail if you live in Southern California) Mail a request with your name & street address to: Ulloth Graphics/ 10609 Columbus Avenue/ Mission Hills, California 91345 (NO: email, DEFINITELY NO: twits or twittering! YES: small donation ok- like a legible stamped self-addressed return envelope at least four and a quarter inches high x five and a half inches wide, YES: continue discussing this topic)
