Part of what we look forward to hearing is how those Superliners behaved and why. What can we learn from this. I know, could be a few years off.
Messrs. Lurker and Bug, your immediate comments lead me to hold that bi-level equipment is "done for" on Amtrak. Single level will be "the order of the day" systemwide.
Joplin is hardly the first incident in which Superliners have overturned, but with Amfleets and Viewliners, it takes an incident rising to the level of Frankford Jct ('15; lest we forget there was also a 1943 incident there as well) to overturn single level equipment. At Cayce, none of the cars overturned.
While we don't know for certainty at this time, the Joplin passenger fatalities, all occurred in overturned cars.
While bi-level equipment will not vanish overnight much as have the Talgos, I think Amtrak will not order anymore, with the Nippon Shyaru fiasco reminder enough - especially when driving by the Rochelle IL facility on I-88 and seeing it decaying. The S-II's have some ten years of service life remaining, so may as well use it with fingers X'd for no more of Hyder, Crescent City, Joplin, et al. I think with the uncertain future the LD trains have, as the reality that Amtrak will get funded without them sets in, any future equipment orders for them should be readily convertible to short distance use. This is not the case with any equipment placed in service today. While of course, the A-II's evolved from the A-I's, they were hardly designed to be short distance convertible (this could have been "by design" of the factions about Amtrak that wanted LD to continue indefinitely).