LogFAQs > #979353802

008Zulu posted...

Maybe this will boost support for trains.

Not really. There are a lot of issues with Amtrak in the US that prevent it from being a reasonable alternative to regional airlines. Similar costs to flying is one. If you pay for a roomette you'll at least get slightly more space, but it's not significantly cheaper. If you account for travel time you could argue it costs more in fact. Second, Amtrak leases trackage rights for most of the rails they run on. This is an issue because UP, CSX, NS, and BNSF (I think that's all of the Class 1s in the US anyway), aren't exactly keen to let Amtrak go ahead of them. Which shouldn't be an issue because they're required to give Amtrak priority by either law or regulation, except not only does no one follow this regulation (with impunity), the length of freight trains in many instances actually exceeds the length of passing sidings, so if they stopped, the next train couldn't get through in either direction. So they physically cannot follow the regulation. Which leaves two solutions, neither of which are really feasible. First, we can build Amtrak owned trackage to avoid the issue entirely. Which won't happen because it would be tax payer funded, and it's incredibly unlikely you could sell that to the American taxpayer that tends to favor airplanes overall anyway, and that's before the airline lobby gets involved. Option two, actually enforce regulations that say Amtrak always has priority and freight must wait for it to pass, which would require making a regulation that says trains can't be longer than the shortest passing siding on their route. Alternatively you could make the Class 1 railroads make them longer, but I'd assume that regulation would naturally cause that. This won't happen because of the railroad lobby. A lot of bulk material we depend on moves by rail, so they've got more power than most people would give credit for.