I would rate changes to this status quo as having an approx. probability of 0 (certainly not in the next 4 yrs), but rail advocates would be well-served with some clarity of vision here. Yes, it's important that Amtrak get fair dispatching. But that's really just the edges of the problem here. - ThreadSky

a320lga.bsky.social • 63 days ago

I would rate changes to this status quo as having an approx. probability of 0 (certainly not in the next 4 yrs), but rail advocates would be well-served with some clarity of vision here. Yes, it's important that Amtrak get fair dispatching. But that's really just the edges of the problem here.

Comments

nilo.bsky.social•63 days ago

Congress has never shown much interest in wrestling with this issue or any of the ancillary ones related to it.

a320lga.bsky.social•63 days ago

yes, save for a brief moment in the mid/late-70s. I don't really see a path to *good* pax rail outside the northeast/CA without that changing

missingthejim.bsky.social•63 days ago

So... more double-tracked mains and increased numbers of sidings? Also, I feel like Conrail's tearing up of two of the former NYC tracks on the Water Level Route was a mistake.

a320lga.bsky.social•63 days ago

NYC tore those tracks up!

definitely need capacity reinvestment, but its hard to do that smartly (cf. the $150 million 2nd Pennsylvanian frequency) without good capacity planning

wanderoo.bsky.social•63 days ago

Which countries have absolute priority for passenger trains on their rail networks, do not have 100% dedicated passenger tracks, and have anywhere near the modal share that rail does for freight traffic in the U.S. and Canada? I'm pretty sure the answer is none.

ganzaa.bsky.social•24 days ago

India? we do have general priority of pax over freight. but as soon as it is more than 2 tracks, we separate out freight (2 for pax, 1 for freight)

wanderoo.bsky.social•23 days ago

That's a good chart, thank you. My only fear about multiple-track lines with freight running parallel to passenger is that if a freight train derails it can completely disrupt passenger service too. On the other hand, geography sometimes means there's little choice in the matter of track location.

ganzaa.bsky.social•23 days ago

there are land acquisition issues, due to which we dont like to have multiple RoW for the same route. we also dont have marginally higher chance for freight derailment than passenger trains.

a320lga.bsky.social•63 days ago

Russia? The Baltic states? China?

a320lga.bsky.social•63 days ago

Of course some of these have HSR lines, but that hardly means that they’ve cut all their local svc away

sandypsj.bsky.social•63 days ago

Hmm maybe we should get working on that thing again

mrbtx.bsky.social•63 days ago

while you're working on pie-in-the-sky, get Uday to respond to my DMs about model trains 🥲

sandypsj.bsky.social•63 days ago

😂

a320lga.bsky.social•63 days ago

heh, yeah, we should

publicuniversal.bsky.social•63 days ago

actual q: how much of the proposal would be making US freight mroe structured and how much would be just letting freight stay unstructured and splitting out pax/freight more completely.

sandypsj.bsky.social•63 days ago

We'll see if we ever get anything on paper but I think both Uday and I think freight has to get more structured, both for interface with pax and for its own competitiveness.

publicuniversal.bsky.social•63 days ago

Anyhow this is the dc union station throat rn

nataliemakhijani.me•63 days ago

I don’t know why but the first thought in my head was “they’re conga lining to a night time activity at summer camp”

crzwdjk.bsky.social•63 days ago

There are some opportunities to rearrange traffic to separate freight and passenger service, for example on the Colorado Front Range or Mexico City-Queretaro, and indeed this was done to some extent on the NEC.

crzwdjk.bsky.social•63 days ago

But to make that work you need centralized (probably federal) planning.

publicuniversal.bsky.social•62 days ago

That would be good tho

thefoxandthecity.com•63 days ago

Maybe certain transportation advocacy organizations could help...

christosilvia.bsky.social•63 days ago

I just don't see much that will improve things beyond nationalization on the network rail model at a minimum. My thesis is that it's all or nothing: we have either the current system, or nationalization, but there is no intermediate step

justtransport.bsky.social•63 days ago

And I think (at least on CSX in NY) the dispatchers really do their best to prioritize Amtrak. So blaming them is a red herring.

starlinechicago.bsky.social•63 days ago

I think individual dispatchers do their best, but they often aren’t put in a position to succeed

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