Mr. SLCHUB, you know better than I that the arrival of #53 will tie up the road in both directions when accessing the SFA station. Now that this stretch of the ACL is publicly owned, that regional transit agency expects their three car trains to "be first". Considering the hour or more "pad" in the AT schedule, Amtrak, and its employees who operate that train, should be prepared to accept such.
Mr. Dunville, it's the same on the Rock Island, where the commuter agency, controls the dispatch. Again it figures the Twin Star Rocket will "fizzle" over the route at the behest of the Agency's trains. Amtrak was sort of the "orphan" when they first started running during '74 with a stub #421-2. As soon as the public agency acquired the RI, the Late Randy Resor was telling me Amtrak wanted to use the route, but the agency said "get lost". Apparently, it's just single track with sidings spaced based upon the TRE schedules. So Amtrak is in a position of "we get you over the road when we get you over the road".
Finally, as I noted at the Transit Forum, I was in Dallas now two weeks ago. I hadn't been there in thirty years, and was totally astounded how the region has embraced mass transportation since that time. I had expected that any Texan's idea of "mass transportation" was simply the three tons of mass representing a Silverado (aren't they made at a GM Texas plant?) transporting often just a driver at whatever velocity the driver wished. Also when landing, when I was there last, the visible suburban sprawl was cotton fields.