An interesting re-working of Amtrak's Florida service was posted by Bruce Richardson, of United Rail Passenger Alliance.  My response is below:

Bruce, I liked your re-work of the Florida service in the latest TWAA.  I hope somebody is listening.

Anyway I have a couple thoughts of my own to contribute to the scenario:

1. For Montreal service I suggest extending the Palmetto to Montreal instead as it could then roughly follow the schedule of the old Montrealer - but using only one additional trainset.  This would give the Montreal service the beneifit of the Vermont ski trade, which is considerable, business to Burlington and Vermont-Florida business.  Population along the Adirondack route is pretty sparse north of Albany.  At the south end, an overnight Miami section could be added over FEC, making a nice two nights and one day service from Montreal.

2. Looking at the number of trainset required brings up the issue of late trains.  If the trains ran more reliably, the service could be run with less trainsets (the Silver Meteor could make a same day turn at New York, the Silver Star split into Miami and Tampa sections could make a same day turn in Florida, the silver Palm and Silver Meteor trainsets could make a same day swap in Florida.  The Auto-Train could run with only two trainsets.  But that's only possible if the trains were mostly on-time).  I believe that it is worth Amtrak's while to increase freight railroad compensation (say 3 times the current figure, the same rate that the Capital Corridor pays UP to keep it's trains successfully running on time.  Track charges are not currently a large expense in the scheme of things.) if that would bring results (the contract should be structured so that increased payments would only be made for on-time trains).  I believe that increased payments would be more than made up for by the increased business from satisfied customers the lower crew expenses brought by covering for unpredictable late trains and especially by the huge productivity increases of the fleet.  Some speeding up of time in the shop would also be part of this equation.

3. Increasing the productivity of the fleet would help and so would rebuilding some Amfleet I to augment to long-distance coach fleet, but really I think and new car order for eastern trains is needed.  Rather than more viewliners, I would suggest using the shell of the Bombardier stainless steel double-deck cars they are now building for NJ Transit.  This has some limitations - because the cars must fit into the Hudson tunnel the interior of a double deck coach lacks room for overhead bins.  However there are plenty of Amfleet II cars around still useable so I'd suggest ordering the following:

19 Luxury sleeper/1st class lounge (bedrooms without bunks don't need tall ceilings) [enough to equip the Lake Shore, Crescent, Silver Star, Silver Meteor]
52 Sleeper/Baggage (short baggage area under superliner height sleepers - and the sleeping car attendant can help unload the baggage, saving an Asst. cond.) [enough for the following runs: CHI-DET-NY; Lake Shore inc. BOS; Cardinal; Twilight Shoreliner; Palmetto MON-NY-JACK-MIM; 2 on Crescent (with extensions to Ft. Worth and San Antonio); 2 on Silver Star/Meteor (1 each for TAMP,MIM)
19 Sleeper/Dormitory
19 First Class Restaurant Dinning Cars
52 Grill dinning car & Lounge
19 Family car with kids play area and lounge - a mix of sleepers, slumbercoach, couchette space
106 slumbercoach/couchette - enough to convert 50% of standard class travel on Lake Shore, Crescent, Silver Star/Meteor, Twilight Shoreliner

Total is 215 cars (give or take).  Can that be funded with equipment trusts and leasers?