THE AMTRAK PENN CENTRAL MADE.

That's been a frequent theme of mine.  Passenger Train Journal offers an excerpt from "The Short, Troubled Life of Penn Central Passenger Trains" that summarizes the argument.  "Penn Central’s managers believed that passenger service west of both Buffalo, N.Y., and Harrisburg, Pa., were financially hopeless cases. Most surviving trains either offered no amenities or provided minimal food service from snack bars."  Everything else is elaboration, although the article notes twice-daily service between New York and Chicago on the former New York Central side, and three such trains, plus for a while, two New York and St. Louis trains on the former Pennsylvania side.

With pictures.