This train don’t carry no con men, this train;
This train don’t carry no con men, this train;
This train don’t carry no con men,
No wheeler dealers, here and gone men,
This train don’t carry no con men, this train.

                                              — Woody Guthrie

   Carol and I were enjoying an afternoon of profound joy and utter dissipation on our third and final day aboard Amtrak’s Southwest Chief, when my idle mind wandered into the devil’s workshop that belonged to the new CEO of the nation’s one and only long distance passenger rail service. Seems the same kind of cost-cutting mentality that would reduce the cost of a face by cutting off the nose has invaded the executive halls of Amtrak. Get this: