I've never ridden on CA Amtraks, but I'll disagree w/you on other parts of the country service, esp. re. cattle cars.

A few yrs ago we had reason to make repeated trips to N ID. Wife made trips using Amtrak, son attended once also. There was no way to compare airline travel, price-wise train was much cheaper...and you didn't have to play games shopping. However, it was almost a 23 hr train ride. So, I had to attend also & was short on time, so I took the airlines. It required rental car & a lot of driving because airlines don't go everywhere either, and will probably be doing fewer destinations in future years, not more.

Anyway, thunderstorms in the Minneapolis area screwed up the airlines big time on my "change plane" arrival in MPS. Flights were cancelled & overnight accomodations were necessary. Next day outbound flights were a headache....no time for relaxation, you were 100% in "figuring out how..." mode. Finally, things got back on schedule.

It took me about 30 hrs of from the time I left my home to get to destination...and it was all a headache. However, first I had to drive 70 mis to airport. Wife drove 10 mis to train station & only got off train to stretch her legs once.

Believe me, I'm very familiar & akin to air travel. However, I personally believe that a shift to train travel would improve this country. However, one of the things I'd like to see is the double set of tracks everywhere, actually reinstalled in many cases. That's what slows down Amtrak now....the passenger train always has to pull off & park & yield to the freight train that "owns" the track (like Canadian National, etc). Amtrak is just running on borrowed track. Unlike the roads, railways are privately owned. The double sets of rails will improve freight traffic also. Most were removed because the railroads couldn't afford to maintain 2 sets....though it was completely possible 50 yrs ago. It won't do much good to have trains that can go 120 mph (I think they can now...they're track-limited to 79 mph though) sitting for 15 minutes on a siding. Now you're like that 555 mph airliner parked for 2 hrs on the ramp waiting for a slot to open up.