I don't blame you in the least for a poor view of your train ride. That's still part of the shutty era of train travel. Most of Amtrak's fleet were soooo many re-polished turds from the days before the NRPC was formed, it took quite a few years (try 20) after it's inception to shake itself free of so much garbage. That & after the formation of Amtrak, the train really didn't go anywhere. Especially compared to the places you could get to when passenger service was privatly owned. A quarter of the routes Amtrak kept were dropped or merged with other routes within the first four years. A third of the routes were gone by 1980. At the rate they were going, the route map today would probably look like a stick layed across a map of the US. Fortunately, in about '80 or '81, the government released it's longstanding stronghold over the railroads (freight) & began to take more of an interest in it's remnant passenger system. I would like to mention here, that Amtrak has received very little government type financial help of any kind since it's formation, until recent. Common stock divvied up amongst the railroads was there, but didn't amount to a whole hill of beans. It was pretty much written, since day one, that Amtrak has to fend for itself & prove it can make it over the course of 30 years or they face dissolution, privatization, or whatever fate would seem just at the time. And, it took about 30 years to prove that they could indeed clean up their act & make something of themselves. Ten years ago they were very VERY close to getting flushed down the commmode. They didn't. They got a multi-million dollar shot in the arm in 2002, just enough cash that they were close to buying up their own stock & making a go of it themselves. I believe Amtrak realized, at that point, that they were going to get less preferential treatment on everyones trackage but their own, which is only about 700 miles. The rest of the routes are over trackage rights with the various freight roads across the US. That kind of ties into the low priority associated with passenger service.
Amtrak has grown strong, recenty. Ridership is up, some old routes are back & a few new ones have been formed. The recent, near $1.5 billion grant, is doing wonders for the company. Ridership on 70% of the routes is up, up, up to record heights. There are no turds left to polish. About 99% of the fleet nowadays is all Amtrak's. There are a handful of heritage cars left, but I believe they are all baggage. Even the first generation of diesels, made for Amtrak, are almost completely phased out. The equipment is newer, quieter & clean. Food has improved & the menus have changed. Dinner in the diner on the Empire Builder & City of New Orleans has gone from medeocre to top notch, or close to it.
So yes, there have been many changes made since you rode the high iron. I would highly advise you to try a short leg journey somewhere & see if you like it & deem it to be an improvment. If you like it & have time to get away for a while, I highly reccommend a Railpass.
Tour the USA by train, IMHO it's THE only way to travel.
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Today's Featured Article - Gatherin of the Orange - by Rick Nikolich. In July of 1998 I was talking to fellow Allis Chalmers collector Mike Schilling about the annual "Gathering of The Orange" AC show coming up in August of 1999. He got this wild idea that we should get a convoy of AC tractors and drive them from Charlotte, Michigan 105 miles to LaGrange, Indiana.
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