Good idea, though I think you might be overthinking a few things.
I do agree with removing the need to insert a CC as the first step.
But I rarely, if ever need to interact with either a human or the kiosk. I buy my ticket on Amtrak.com (or the app) and then show the barcode in the app (or in my email) to the conductor. There really isn't much more to traveling Amtrak than that.
I agree that the process to look up information and buy tickets on the kiosk needs to be streamlined, and it would also be nice if the kiosk could display ETAs and things like that, but beyond that--and especially when you get outside of major, confusing terminals like NYP, WAS, CHI, and LAX--I'm not really sure what the kiosks can and should do to help people with wayfinding and "the next stage of their journey." Most commonly, the next stage of their journey involves sitting and waiting for their train to be called. Other things that the airline kiosks do (print out checked baggage labels, etc.), change tickets, deal with upgrades, etc. could be added, but those are all pretty minor features in the grand scheme of things (and things that Amtrak likely won't be able to do at a kiosk until they spend a significant amount of money upgrading their website and app and back-end to support stuff like that.
Don't get me wrong; I love big dreams for Amtrak, but to be honest and realistic, I don't think there's a huge need for massive changes to the functionality, and given how expensive and complicated it would be to upgrade all the infrastructure to support it, I don't know that it's realistic to expect it will ever be done in the current climate. Some refreshes to the interface to make it easier for people to find and book trains, definitely yes, but the larger vision is too ambitious to be seriously considered, IMHO. Amtrak travel is simply too simple and undemanding to need a hundred million dollars' worth of investment to fix.
However, if Congress magically agreed with you and threw an extra billion or two at Amtrak and someone at Amtrak could spearhead a significant upgrade to the entire IT platform and station experience and everything (not to mention expanding train service across the fruited plain), I'd be the happiest camper around.
