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The tracks are owned by freight, and rented for passenger. Changing that would be expensive.
by michael1999 5y ago
The tracks are owned by freight, and rented for passenger. Changing that would be expensive.
- iluvcommunism 5y agoWe just need Amtrak to own their own rails. Or whoever runs the passenger lines. It’s ridiculous they share it.
- pstuart 5y agoAgreed. Nationalize the rails, invest in and enforce PTC (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_train_control), and make passenger traffic a peer to freight. We could allow for a "market economy" of the rails where you could have differentiated passenger services with Amtrak being the the fundamental offering and allow third parties to participate as well.
- antognini 5y agoThe British model, where the state owns the rails but the train services are private, seems to work a lot better than the US model which is the opposite.
- pstuart 5y agoIt's a public commons, like the roads, air space, and radio frequencies. I think the downvoters see the word "nationalize" and panic over unfounded fears of communism.
- jerrysievert 5y agoI think that would only work if the freight trains were not allowed on the Amtrak owned rails. even now, amtrak has legal right of way, but the freight companies ignore it because there is no recourse.
- jerrysievert 5y agoamtrak has right of way over the freight trains, but that does not seem to matter to the freight companies, as they never get fined over it. see http://blog.amtrak.com/2019/05/why-are-amtrak-trains-delayed-by-freight-trains/ http://blog.amtrak.com/2019/05/why-are-amtrak-trains-delayed... for more context.