Doing anything tricky (shifting routes, changing room occupancy to only part of the route) is probably beyond the capability of automation, and would need the passenger's approval.
Doing something like that will require a person. A few years ago, when Amtrak actually called you to notify you of a change, you could have worked it out then. Now, it requires that an agent handle it, and likely with the passenger having to do the legwork of finding the alternative.
Just to give an example of what is possible if one has a functional IT system ....
On my way out to India the Newark to Delhi leg got cancelled due to mechanical. As soon as the cancellation happened, while we were still sitting in the plane at the gate I got an SMS instructing me to call a number, different from any of the standard published number. It was answered and as usual I was placed in a queue, but within 10 minutes I was talking to a lady who presented me with two alternatives, one of which disappeared while we were talking as one of the flights got filled up. So I agreed to the other one, which involved a downgrade on a short domestic leg in India. It took almost an hour to re-ticket the original now spanning three airlines United, Lufthansa and Air India. I got more than adequate Future Flight Credits to cover for the small downgrade.
Once that was done I got another SMS with a choice of three hotels to choose from in the Newark area complements of United including breakfast. I picked one and an e-document with reservation info appeared on my phone and I was on my way to the hotel, after picking up my checked bag from the belt. I chose a hotel that had their shuttle operating at what by then was 2am, but had I used a taxi, I was told to submit the receipt for reimbursement.
It was one of the better IRROPS handling experience I had as it did not involve standing in that mile long line at a Service Desk. I didn't know if my lifetime status had anything to do with the extraordinarily good handling or not.
The next day when I showed up at the airport for the 5pm departure to Munich, United checked me through all the way to Kolkata involving three airlines. All the inter-airline transfers went flawlessly and miraculously my bag traveled with me with correct interline transfers all the way!
Amtrak should, for one thing, develop relationships with one or more airlines to be able to offer alternatives involving air transport when in a jam. Usually it does manage to handle misconnects in Chicago well. It should attempt to deploy the same acumen for handling IRROPS across the board, involving foreign (i.e. air or road) carriers where it makes sense. They used to do much more of that in the past.
In the removal of a Sleeper scenario I would expect to get an SMS and/or email as soon as the change is known, with instructions of what to do, and possibly even an alternative or two to choose from and approve and take it from there. But that would require an extremely functional IT platform.
