Especially no equipment
By the time this train is operating, at least some of the Midwest cars will likely be in operation. Besides, all this train would really need is two short Horizon sets, one of which was just made available by the cancellation of the Hoosier State. I'm not saying there is an abundance of free equipment, but I doubt that would be the reason for the route not being implemented.
I'm certainly in favor of a NOL-Florida train, but even if it has through service to Chicago it will do little for Chicago-Florida travel besides eliminating the connection in DC. Besides the fact that there will be no service south of Orlando, the route takes longer than the route via DC. The travel time not including connections or station dwells is proposed to be 33:08 from CHI-JAX via New Orleans whereas using the current CL and SM route only takes 29:59, which is also interestingly 6 minutes faster than the former Floridian route. If the priority was Chicago-Florida, it would be much easier to just implement through cars between the SS and CL, which would have the added benefit of serving Miami, Tampa, and Raleigh.
Definitely not through Philadelphia: the fastest I know of is the whole CL route followed by the SM route south of WAS. However, it is possible there is a more direct route that is faster which Amtrak has never operated on.
Although, truth be told, even then the Republicans in general did not oppose those cuts too much.
Yup, lived through those "save the trains" campaigns, and we could never quite raise the Republicans from their slumber enough to get anywhere near to block any of it. They generally cheered right along.
I'm honestly not sure where you're getting this from. President Obama (D) and a Democratically controlled congress provided $8 billion for improved passenger rail funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Unfortunately, much of this money was returned/refused/ignored by the likes of Scott Walker (R), Rick Scott (R), and John Kasich (R). Obama also negotiated another $13 billion in funding for projects between New York and New Jersey. As expected this funding agreement was quickly undone and abandoned by Trump (R).
I’ve read this statement several times and yet I still have no idea what you’re really trying to say. By any rational assessment government funded passenger rail would fall into “so-called” social programs.
What you seem to be asking between the lines is “How can we improve government funded passenger rail while continuing to elect anti-rail politicians?"
