Since JB didn't take this one on, I will.

Amtrak is a mess, agreed; but the question is, why?

Is it the chronic underfunding?

Is it the fact that it is pretty much prohibited from owning its own track, except in the Acela corridors on the east coast? That means it is dependent on freight companies for track maintenance (meaning no high-speed trains, because the freight companies neither need nor want such track) routes (freight lines generally get sent through the hinterlands. The nearest Amtrak station to Madison, Wis., for instance, is in Columbus -- 30 minutes out of town) and schedule (freight trains get the right of way).

Is it the fact that the government wants Amtrak to be self-supporting, while providing all sorts of tax support to the bus industry in the form of free roads and the like?

Maybe its the fact that all of the above means limited routes and times, so reliability is poor and you get ridiculous layovers in hub cities like Chicago?

Maybe if Amtrak was allowed to operate as it's supposed to -- as an independent agency gradually weaning itself off of government subsidies -- it would work. Instead it must labor under ridiculous restrictions imposed by the federal government -- often by people who oppose its very existence. Having thus crippled Amtrak, those same people then point to those hampered operations and say "See? It doesn't work!!"

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Man up.