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A comment on There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did it anyway. Parent comment

Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by reaperducer on Thursday March 21, 2019 @02:46PM (#19455930)
Yes, and no.

To the railroads it gets higher priority. But if a freight train bocks a passenger train the railroad gets fined by the hour (quarter hour?).

However, the freight railroads often just eat the fine as a cost of doing business. Like delivery companies do with parking tickets.

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Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by tomatotomato37 on Thursday March 21, 2019 @04:57PM (#19457236)
Apparently this was contested a couple years ago in the courts:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/04/29/...

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Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by plopz on Thursday March 21, 2019 @03:41PM (#19456432)
Fined by who? Aren't all the railways privately owned and just licensed by Amtrak?
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Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by vonmoltke on Thursday March 21, 2019 @04:16PM (#19456792)
The law that created Amtrak provided for it to operate on tracks owned by freight companies, with usage fees, under the condition that passenger trains get higher priority than freight trains. Part of that condition is fines, payable from the freight company to Amtrak, for Amtrak train delays caused by the freight company.

Unfortunately, for various political reasons that part of the law has almost no teeth so freight companies openly flout it or treat the meager fines as the cost of doing business. It's a big part of the reason that passenger rail sucks in the US.

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Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by Aloha on Thursday March 21, 2019 @04:14PM (#19456757)
Amtrak doesn't even license it - Amtrak is actually owned mostly by the freight railroads.
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Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by vonmoltke on Thursday March 21, 2019 @04:18PM (#19456813)
The National Passenger Rail Corporation is a federally chartered corporation whose controlling interest is owned by the US federal government.
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Re:There is no reason to cross the U.S. by train, but I did ... by nerfhammer on Thursday March 21, 2019 @06:19PM (#19457920)
Yup. It's the rails underneath it that are mostly owned by freight or other rail companies.
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