[bpodgursky]

The ridership and convenience of the Acela route is really not representative of the rest of the country.

It's extremely speculative to extrapolate that dense route with the induced demand for travelers going from Kansas City union station to Denver union station... with absolutely nothing in-between.

[yorwba]

You don't need to cover the entire country. Building out routes that are already seeing demand would be plenty.

[bpodgursky]

Yes, that is, to within a rounding error, Acela.

[wpm]

The new Borealis route (short run of the Empire Builder from Chicago to St. Paul) was profitable in like, weeks, after it started running. It is consistently sold out.