If we ran more trains on long distance routes and increased capacity for sleeper rooms on the trains, the price of tickets could be cheaper and schedules would be better, which would raise ridership helping to give politicians evidence that rail benefits the citizens meaning rail gets better funding so we can provide better service
Basically what I am saying is we need at minimum twice daily trains on the California Zephyr and preferably closer to 4 or 5 daily RTs
This would significantly help the cities along long distance routes like Denver, Salt Lake City and Reno to have better and more usable transit as people would have multiple options for when to leave their homes, which would significantly boost ridership as these are not small cities by any means
There is enough ridership to get 22 daily flights from Denver to Salt Lake City, there is more than enough to justify 5 daily trains between the 2 cities even if the train would be slowrr
The service could actually be a compelling night train with you being able to leave Denver at 6 pm and arrive in Salt Lake at 8:30 am the next day.
And yes, driving is faster but it is also physically exhausting and I think people would be willing to take a slower option if they can go to bed and sleep and wake up at their destination
And while I am discussing Salt Lake City and Denver on the California Zephyr, this applies to pretty much any major city pair only connected by a long distance route where increasing train frequency would increase ridership and lower ticket prices
