I am highly supportive of Amtrak's long-term plans (the covid-related cuts are unfortunate but understandable) to focus on shorter, faster, more reliable routes at more favorable times that connect major cities like the St. Paul-Chicago stretch of the Empire Builder that can be more (but not completely) competitive with air travel. Issue number one regarding Amtrak continues to be the commercial railways (BNSF, CSX, NSC, UP) decades of refusal to follow the rules and give Amtrak preference on rail- leading to a dismal 43% on-schedule figure for long-distance trains. This is what leads to the delays that make Amtrak untenable to people that actually need to get somewhere at a given time.

More info about it in this Bloomberg article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2019-11-20/amtrak-ceo-has-no-love-lost-for-dining-cars-long-haul-routes