I think the primary problem is still staffing issues. My assumption was that Amtrak was not going to restore the full pre-March 2020 schedule until a certain number of Avelia Liberty Trainsets were inducted and in service. The current Acela fleet is on its last legs. I am still rather surprised they were upgraded to speed up to 145/150 mph on 16 of the 23 miles of the NJ speedway a few weeks ago. (Note, the Avelia Liberty will be rated for 160 mph for the whole stretch once it enters service as work on the last few miles will be complete by then.)

I'll stand by this and say that the full pre-March 2020 schedule won't be back until 2024 and it might not be until 2025 when the additional service of hourly NYP-BOS and peak travel time every half hour WAS-NYP is launched. While pre-COVID travel is over 80% back, as written elsewhere, it is not the same demographic as it was before. It might not be for a couple more years until Amtrak is beating FY 2019 ridership, where Amtrak is breaking ridership records for each month. Hell, the last three months of 2019 and the first two months of 2020, yes even February 2020, saw record ridership on Amtrak each of those months.