These constant fights over passenger priority are depressing on several levels. Of course, freight railroad mistreatment of passenger svc is bad--but the convo currently misses that it's essentially inevitable with our current rail operations paradigm in the US.
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/class-i-railroads-see-red-over-amtraks-views-on-passenger-train-preference/
https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews/news-wire/class-i-railroads-see-red-over-amtraks-views-on-passenger-train-preference/
Comments
- BNSF
Once the freight railroads had turned things around in the 80s and had regained profitability, was there a serious conversation about winding down Amtrak and *reimposing passenger service obligations*?
Maybe if we are laggards on nationalization, it really is the best idea to re-impose passenger service obligations on the freights. They can afford it
Railroads only spend money if they expect a return on investment. The mid century railroad crisis established a durable mindset of pessimism
A few specific regulations were to blame for the mid century railroading crisis, particularly regulations of freight rates.
I'm not advocating re imposing them, merely returning to the pre Amtrak status quo for the passenger service portion
I know part of it is the trains themselves are bigger...
Also what you don't see are boats getting the cargo closer to its destination in the first place.
https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/jumbo-freight-train-first-for-west-coast-main-line#:~:text=*The%20Jumbo%20service,have%20operated%20on%20this%20route.
And if Amtrak gets their way, it would be unlikely a window is missed
https://www.up.com/aboutup/funstuff/rrtalk/train_types/index.htm
Each of these kinds of trains behaves differently both on the road and in yards. That’s not considering factors such as signaling, crew usage, work orders and more.
https://bsky.app/profile/a320lga.bsky.social/post/3latxocwejc2e
https://homesignalblog.wordpress.com/2021/12/27/efficiency-and-the-decline-of-american-freight-railroads/
definitely need capacity reinvestment, but its hard to do that smartly (cf. the $150 million 2nd Pennsylvanian frequency) without good capacity planning