Re: NNG - "We Have Met The Enemy - And He Is US ... "

And, without mentioning personalities real or imagined, I responded to that question at 6:44am PST yesterday.

According to news reports I have seen, Amtrak has sufficient cash flow to run their trains. So I wouldn't worry about Amtrak right now. Apparently they're in better financial shape than CATS is.

Perhaps their representatives on the west coast are a cut below the rest. A few years ago my daughters (both twenty somethings now) decided to give me an Amtrak gift certificate for a round trip from Albany NY to South Bend IN. According to them, the Amtrak agent in South Bend was extremely helpful (of course, my younger daughter is quite cute) in putting together a gift package of the certificate plus various Amtrak booklets, and the harried Amtrak agent in Springfield MA was extremely helpful to me (I'm not so cute, but I was polite) in actually booking the trip; he even understood why I'd rather leave my car at Albany than at his station. In fact, he was even polite and helpful to the impolite people who had been in line ahead of me.