A new battleground in the War against the Blue States
Rising oil prices have substantially increased the cost of locomotive diesel fuel and the prices of all other goods and services Amtrak consumes
So Amtrak is planning on discontinuing discount fares on the Northeast Corridor to make up for the rising oil prices, eh?
The Northeast Corridor, for those of you who aren't trainspotters, is electrified, and uses engines like the AEM-7 (an ASEA design built under license by General Motors) and the HHP-8 (a distant relation to the SNCF TGV trainset locomotives), which are, not surprisingly, electric locomotives. As far as I know, the only diesel locomotives that pull passengers on the NE corridor south of NYC are operated by third-party commuter railroads or the occasional long-haul passenger train that operates into Philadelphia. I believe it's the same arrangement north of NYC, but I can't say for certain.
But the one thing that is certain is that electricity prices are not going up nearly as fast as oil prices (and for those newly-privatized railroads in Brazil who just scrapped their electrifications, I'll just point and laugh) and if there are any railroad services in North America that don't have to play the "fuel surcharge or bankruptcy" game, it's the electrified services in the NE Corridor.
But what's the point of overthrowing the government of the United States if you can't play soccer with the heads (and the pocketbooks) of the loyalists afterwards? Profiteering and war crimes are good, but all work and no play makes Dick a dull boy.