 Amtrak had to abandon numerous large stations whose upkeep could no longer be justified.On the other hand, the creation of the Los Angeles–Seattle "Coast Starlight" from three formerly separate train routes was an immediate success, resulting in an increase to daily service by 1973.Needing to operate only half the train routes that were owned by the private railroads, Amtrak originally picked around 1,200 of the best passenger cars to lease from the 3,000 that the private railroads had owned.