Modern Vespa

If it was profitable I am thinking Union Pacific would be more cooperative.

Actually you are wrong on that one. Union Pacific is paid trackage fees for passenger trains using its routes. In other words, passenger rail is profitable - for the Union Pacific Railroad. That is what is so discouraging about their practice of constantly forcing passenger trains onto sidings and causing them to arrive behind schedule.

(c) Preference Over Freight Transportation. - Except in an emergency, intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation provided by or for Amtrak has preference over freight transportation in using a rail line, junction, or crossing unless the Board orders otherwise under this subsection. A rail carrier affected by this subsection may apply to the Board for relief. If the Board, after an opportunity for a hearing under section 553 of title 5, decides that preference for intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation materially will lessen the quality of freight transportation provided to shippers, the Board shall establish the rights of the carrier and Amtrak on reasonable terms. - See more at: http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/49/V/C/243/24308#sthash.M5FlGLFq.dpuf

Maybe there's a law that says that they *must* provide "trackage access" to passenger trains? I wonder how much of the maintenance the trackage fees pay for.

EDIT: Tangentially, this law says that Amtrak passenger trains must have preference over freight trains.

I miss living in New England and the East Coast train network...
Here, On the West Coast the schedule sucks and the cost is sky high...
I would love to put my Scooter on the train to Seattle or Vancouver from the SF Bay area. But there is no Auto Train on this side of the country. I think it's because Union Pacific monopolizes the tracks here...
Not only does Amtrak own nearly no track, they don't get even the same times on them every day. So a train might be scheduled for a time, but be bumped for hours to wait for a cargo train that never runs past.


Grrrr!



Mark

Maybe there's a law that says that they *must* provide "trackage access" to passenger trains? I wonder how much of the maintenance the trackage fees pay for.

Actually you are wrong on that one. Union Pacific is paid trackage fees for passenger trains using its routes. In other words, passenger rail is profitable - for the Union Pacific Railroad. That is what is so discouraging about their practice of constantly forcing passenger trains onto sidings and causing them to arrive behind schedule.

There are several issues that would have to be successfully dealt with before it could happen.

One, there is not enough Amtrak equipment to do it, and it certainly has less than zero funds to do anything about that. It doesn't have the funds to keep it's CURRENT equipment in good repair, much less buy anything new.

Two, Amtrak's nationwide network runs mostly on tracks owned by freight rail companies like Union Pacific, BNSF, and CSX. While BNSF does a pretty good job of expediting Amtrak passenger trains, Union Pacific, in particular, seems to do it's utmost to delay and interfere with Amtrak trains, hence some of the nicknames like Unlimited Parking and Utterly Pathetic. Adding ANY additional Amtrak trains on freight railroad tracks would require agreement by those freight railroads. If Amtrak would not be able to have at least reasonable reliability in terms of on-time performance, it wouldn't be financially successful. Let's see... where was I? Ah yes...

Three, Amtrak is currently prohibited by Congress from starting ANY new routes unless it can GUARANTEE that they will not require any subsidy.

Four, even absent freight railroad interference, any new Auto-Train operations would probably require upgrades of existing tracks and signalling in order to be able to run at fast enough track speeds to be an attractive alternative to driving.

We would certainly like to see what you're suggesting, but the obstacles are substantial.

Most if not all passenger lines lose money and rely on government subsidies to survive. Makes little sense to add more losers. If it was profitable I am thinking Union Pacific would be more cooperative.

Very true. Here in Utah, UP shares rails with our commuter rail...Front Runner and it works well. The Front Runner is running profitable and UP has been using the tracks between midnight and 4 AM for freight traffic.

Actually you are wrong on that one. Union Pacific is paid trackage fees for passenger trains using its routes. In other words, passenger rail is profitable - for the Union Pacific Railroad. That is what is so discouraging about their practice of constantly forcing passenger trains onto sidings and causing them to arrive behind schedule.

How do you know "trackage fees" make a profit for the UP railroad ?

"Trackage fees" are fees paid to UPRR by Amtrak for access across their rail lines. There is no direct cost to UPRR for the access so I don't know what else you could call it. It is revenue to UPRR.