Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better

Re:Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better by fredoralive on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @10:39AM (#24628356)

AIUI it’s partly due to priority rules. In most countries, passenger trains have priority over freight. Amtrak doesn’t own much rail itself, and mostly runs on 3rd party tracks. On these Amtrak only has priority if it’s running on time. So as soon as a train gets one delay, the various railway operators stop giving the train priority, and it just gets more delayed.

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Re:Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better by protomyth on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @10:54AM (#24628547)

The penalties on cargo timing are pretty severe. If that cargo train is supposed to be somewhere to load / unload, it really is a problem if it doesn't arrive on time and costs the railroads money they do not want to pay. Cargo, as many SV startups have discovered, is much more profitable than passenger.

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Re:Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better by rhino369 on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @11:43AM (#24629202)

Amtrak is clinging to an unprofitable business model (outside the Boston-DC route).

85% of adults in America have a car. The 15% (plus children) who don't can use Greyhound/Megabus buses, which are fine. Flights are generally more convenient for trips over 300 miles anyway.

There is no significant use case for Amtrak. It doesn't take a conspiracy to make it unprofitable.

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Re:Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better by klyrs on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @12:33PM (#24629898)

There was a significant use case when Amtrak was gutted to make way for "modernization" of transit, which resulted in the urban sprawl and high rate of car ownership that you see today.

And also, Amtrak is a quasi-public corporation like USPS. Its existence is meant to be a public good, not to be profitable.

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Re:Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better by freeopinion on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @12:47PM (#24630059)

I wonder how things might change if 1% of highway funding were diverted to rail funding. And if 1% of USPS funding went into funding mailcars on Amtrak trains. And if 1% of federal unemployment stimulus went into hiring new employees for rail.

Maybe current funding dwarfs all those accumulated 1%s. I don't know. But maybe a dozen 1%s could help out a dozen other challenges and give a huge boost to passenger rail in the U.S.

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Re:Amtrak’s Empire Builder: The Train That Deserves Better by klyrs on Tuesday September 29, 2020 @11:32AM (#24629039)

Actually, I'm a cyclist who has participated in "rails to trails" advocacy. That was actually a statement of self-awareness and I know precisely WTF I'm talking about because I've talked to perhaps hundreds of other cyclists about this issue.

It's easy to blame conservatives. But a huge portion of democrats take the same money and vote for the same bills, only they dig in their heels a little to score green points with trifling shit like rails to trails.

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