Amtrak is having trouble with ridership due to the covid epidemic.
Some of their traffic was WAY down, as in around only 25% of what it was pre-covid. That may be coming back now, but it will come back slowly.
As ridership crashed, so did passenger revenue. Granted, Amtrak requires subsidies to run, but back when I was still working they managed to get to the point where farebox revenue covered about 50% of their expenses.
It doesn't make sense to expand routes now -- it's all they can do to keep things going as best as they can on the routes they have now (with reduced service on some of the corridors, etc.). So capital projects (outside of routine maintenance) should be put off.
One thing I'd like to see them get is funding to replace the NYC tunnels under the Hudson River (and eventually, under the East River as well). They're 111 years old now, and they're probably not going to last much longer without a full rebuilding, which will require that one or two replacement tunnels be built first so that the old ones can be taken out-of-service and re-done. I've walked in them back years ago, and even then, the age was showing. Actually, I've been down on the trackbed at the bottom of the tunnels, trying to get brake hoses reconnected under the engine and cars at 2 in the morning when they parted and the train (the "Twilight Shoreliner") went into emergency...
