by RandallW
Amtrak LD survived because (at least pre-COVID) there was a recognition that a lot of the nation's financial activity flowed through NYC, and they couldn't build out more airports and highways to replace railroad services in the NEC. The tradeoff through is that federal support for the NEC depends on showing that Amtrak, as the body maintaining the NEC, is also serving (say) Texas or Missouri.
I seriously don't think we had as vocal or significant a group of federal elected officials openly willing to punish states for perceived slights since immediately after the Civil War that they would be willing to put the interests of the entire country at risk in the interests of punishing the states on the NEC.
I seriously don't think we had as vocal or significant a group of federal elected officials openly willing to punish states for perceived slights since immediately after the Civil War that they would be willing to put the interests of the entire country at risk in the interests of punishing the states on the NEC.