I am very happy to see Amtrak moving in this direction, and even with that, I think the threat to the overall LD network is over-hyped. The articles linked even mention that it is not as easy as just saying game over for several reasons. Still, I think this is definitely the way things need to head. This will make riding the train a more common part of the American social norm across the country, not just in the NEC and on the Cali services. This can only create more public support for rail, which makes infrastructure improvements much easier to accomplish politically. That kind of public support could even bring back some of the LDs that get lost in this initial change of course. I think the LDs do have a place in the future of Amtrak, but there needs to be a lot of out of the box thinking. A prime example is NYC to NC/SC/GA. Right now the chinatown buses are KILLING IT in this market, running almost strictly overnight, where as the train is awkwardly scheduled where it's horribly inconvenient on either the start and tail end. Go check out Allen St, Canal St, & East Broadway in New York between 7PM and 11PM and you'll see what I'm talking about. A schedule adjustment on the Crescent would have an effect on service to/from VA towns that would be addressed by other corridor service, with the Crescent morphing into something that's making pick ups in the evening (NY->DC and ATL->Charlotte) and depositing on the opposite end between 5A and 11A. This also means it's perfectly positioned to be the first train of the day between the deposit cities.
Pushing the SB Crescent back 3 hrs and 15 mins would mean:
NYP @ 5:30P (Good for business departures returning to DC and post work trips to NC/SC/GA)
WAS @ 9:45P
CLT @ 5:05A (Good for business trips to ATL)
ATL @ 11:28A
and NB bump it up by 2 and a half hours
ATL @ 5:34P
CLT @ 10:51P/11:16P
WAS @ 7:23A
NYP @ 11:16A
The side effect is arrival/departure times at NOL, maybe the Crescent oughta be split up? I've done the NOL to NYP trip before, but south of Atlanta, how far are the majority of passengers traveling? Perhaps it should be a NYP-ATL train and a NOL-WAS train, or simply split them in the middle at CLT? How much of the issue can be addressed via new, shorter corridor service along segments of the existing LD network?
What about the Carolinian and the Piedmont? If you add an overnight Carolinian tweak the times ever so slightly, not only do you get the perfect windows for overnight travel between the NEC and the RGH-CLT corridor, you're also perfectly positioned to handle the rush hour movements between RGH and CLT as well as NYP/DC. You could even continue to use a portion of that trainset (loco and a few cars) as the round trip that goes from CLT to RGH and back and arrive in time to reassemble the train for the NB trip to NY, which frees up the Piedmont set that currently operates 73/74/77/78. Or perhaps a re-timed Florida train that feeds into 73/feeds off of 78 instead of a second Carolinian?
Another possible place for innovation is the CZ. I've heard anecdotally that Denver is the major point of seat turnover between the east end of the route and west end of the route, is that correct? Maybe it ought to get split there to improve OTP? The point is that to keep the LD service relevant, creative ideas are going to need to flow freely, and could allow them to supplement these new corridors in a useful way instead of providing service at awkward times for the sake of keeping the LD network alive.