Amtrakistani Manifesto

We, the oppressed people of Amtrakistan, take arms against the filthy running-dog capitalist railway fascists! The foul-breathed reactionary time thieves who steal the people's lives and imprison the proletariat in gulags referred to by their lying lackeys as "waiting rooms" will be tolerated no more! No more will we be penned like sheep and driven like cattle! People of Amtrakistan, arise! You have nothing to lose but your luggage!!

And in case you're wondering... yes, I WAS laughing the entire time I was writing this. So Amtrak doesn't need to worry about an elite cadre of cliche-happy Communist commandos causing armed riots in the name of passenger rights.
All the same, I doubt anyone who has spent much time riding the remains of America's passenger trains can fail to notice the problems for both passengers and staff. Delays are rife. The lucky first class passengers might get a lounge with food and drinks, or (as in Kansas City) get a small area to sit, complete with broken snack machine. (FYI, temporary and permanent residents of Kansas City Union Station: the coin slot is jammed. Unless someone has fixed it since Thursday, which I doubt. The snack man refilled what little needed to be refilled without even checking, and who else is going to be watching out?) Worse-off passengers in worse situations get the privilege of sitting on their luggage, sitting on the floor, or even standing as they suffer delays up to eight hours long, relieved only by periodic announcements that the train will be boarding in half an hour... and another half an hour... and another... and another...
Conditions for the staff are even worse. For attendants, conductors, engineers, dining car staff and everybody else tasked with keeping your Amtrak experience out of the lowest layer of hell, the delays mean one thing: more work and less time to live outside desperate, declining Amtrakistan. They are forced to make apologies for the messes they didn't create, go days without sleep as they cater to hungry, exhausted passengers, and watch their lives slip by as the train is forced aside for ever more freight.
It's time for something to be said. If you can help me say it in any way (you live near an Amtrak station, you've had crazy Amtrak experiences, etc.), leave a comment, send a message, put a note in a bottle and float it my way, whatever strikes your fancy. Just don't let a nation America created fall so far behind what America can do.