Does Amtrak realize it's too expensive?
In the Northeast -- the heart of their system -- it seems to cost about $50 to travel 100 miles on a regular train. Does Amtrak realize there's very little personal travel business at those prices? It simply isn't competitive with driving yourself someplace (much less if there's more than one pax). Heck, it's barely competitive with RENTING a car, buying gas, and driving yourself where you want to go.
I have a friend who needs to fly transcon into EWR, and would like to connect to Amtrak to her nearby hometown. The cost of the short train ride is almost as much as the transcon!
It's a shame, because airline-type pricing would make Amtrak useful in the Northeast. Logic would suggest that something like a $50 New York-Philly roundtrip SHOULD be possible. It can't possibly be more expensive to transport people by rail than by airplane, especially in this era of higer fuel prices.