Let it go

Sell Amtrak to the highest bidder and let it go private. This has gone on far too long and it’s holding up the prospect of both regional and high-speed national rail.
Maybe one of the airlines would consider buying Amtrak? It’s not the most ridiculous notion. They’ve got flight attendants and all kinds of support personnel who are looking layoffs in the face who could probably switch over to rail service with a minimum of retraining (no pun intended). Airlines already have computerized ticketing, mileage awards, etc, etc…the only difference is that trains run on tracks instead of flying through the air.
And then CUT OUT all the God-damn milk-run stops and use terminals in major cities ONLY. I’m sorry if you live in Podunk, Ohio, halfway between Indianapolis and Columbus; you’re probably better off driving (or taking regional rail instead, which should run on separate, light rail tracks, and can afford to make milk run stops). A train that goes from, say, Chicago to Miami, probably should stop ONLY in Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville, Atlanta, then maybe Savannah, Jacksonville, Orlando (gotta make Mickey happy) and then arrive in Miami. Or whatever. I’m looking at a map and that looks reasonable for that route. It’s a crow-flight trip of about 1400 miles and that a stop, on average, about every 200 miles. If the train is able to average 60MPH, that’s somewhere in the neighborhood of every 3-1/2 hours, and the entire trip (and I know my mileage numbers are off because it won’t be a straight line trip) would take around 20-24 hours, not including stops. But since I’m not stopping at every podunk wide spot on the railroad, stop time will be limited.
And the beauty is that you don’t even have to involve TSA. At least if someone blows up a train, it’s already on the ground.
Maybe I’m just a dreamer.