4 ms·
Dumb question but why can’t they just tack on passenger carts to freight trains?
by tru3_power 5y ago
Dumb question but why can’t they just tack on passenger carts to freight trains?
- ch4s3 5y agoNo, the freight trains don't make frequent stops or start and end in places you would want to travel to/from.
- ghaff 5y agoBecause freight trains can be really really slow. (I suspect there are a ton of other issues as well--including that you probably wouldn't even cut costs very much.)
- bombcar 5y agoThe freight railroads fought for years to get Amtrak setup so they could ditch their unprofitable passenger rail. Freight trains also don't travel in the same way passenger rail wants to, and rarely stops, and is slow. The solution is to build parallel lines and more passing sidings and dual track, but that's expensive and nobody involved wants to. For comparison, the double tracking of Los Angeles to San Diego has been in progress for 20+ years now and is at about 2/3s double track. https://www.sandag.org/index.asp?projectid=260&fuseaction=projects.detail https://www.sandag.org/index.asp?projectid=260&fuseaction=pr... And if you really want freight and passenger to coexist you build entirely separate lines (or quad track allowing overtaking).