Passenger Trains > Rail Passenger Website Post

https://www.railpassengers.org/happening-now/news/blog/passengers-win.again/
 

While that is relatively good news, creation of a table of metrics, with or without any kind of a punishment stick, will not solve the problem of the broken railroading model in the USA.  While I will leave BNSF out of my criticism for the time being, the other major roads seem to have given up any semblance of responsibility to their customers and employees.  The only thing that matters is shareholder returns and CEO compensation, both going up while service standards and morale are going down.  No amount of "metrics framing" or carping by Amtrak officials is going to change the downward spiral of freight railroading. More and more of their traditional business is given up to trucks and pipelines, value is sucked out of their physical plants to pad profits, maintenance and reliability is sacrificed, and what few trains they continue to run will become more and more expensive to operate.  Ongoing tariff and border wars are not going to help what once was a bright spot, namely international business from ports of entry and cross border with Canada and Mexico.

A prediction here is that "maintenance windows" and other contrived excuses from the hosts will lead to fewer opportunities for passenger trains to run on time, if at all. 



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/19 09:58 by 79mph.

NARP is only tooting its own horn without semblance of reality.

Still and all, had they lost that court case, matters could get worse than it otherwise would. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/19 10:41 by joemvcnj.

to me - all this is just "white noise" coming from people who have no idea of what to do.

Unless the freight railroads are substantially fined for their deplorable handling of passenger trains, they will not improve.

All corporations ONLY pay attention to money.-- costs them money--and you will really get their attention--fast!  I call this "the Corporate Mind"

Now the question is: how long will the balance of freight railroads collectively sit around and shuck and jive (and not resolve OTP issues) until another court case is needed to make them do ANYTHING?

Funny thing: Somewhere in our US History studies long ago, didn't we read that the US government literally GAVE miles of ROW to railroads to induce services across the land?

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/railroad/

"Beginning in the early 1870s, railroad construction in the United States increased dramatically. Prior to 1871, approximately 45,000 miles of track had been laid. Between 1871 and 1900, another 170,000 miles were added to the nation's growing railroad system.

[...]

Four of the five transcontinental railroads were built with assistance from the federal government through land grants. Receiving millions of acres of public lands from Congress, the railroads were assured land on which to lay the tracks and land to sell, the proceeds of which helped companies finance the construction of their railroads."

So excuse me, did I read this correctly? FREE land for ROW and real estate needs?

Did the US Congress in the 1870s give FREE land to the transcon railroads in which to provide both freight and passenger rail services across the country?

So what gives today's major railroads the right to deny expeditious service to Amtrak?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/19 12:47 by NYC4096.

Do not overlook the fact that, in exchange for the land grants, railroads had to transport government traffic at half rate until after 
World War II.  It is estimated that the government got 7 times their money back in just World War II alone.  The land grant issue was laid to rest years ago but it still surfaces from time to time.  The real issue with transportation in the USA is that the Federal government picked favorites from time to time, and then punished transportation successes.
The punitive regulation of railroads from 1915 thru 1070 almost destroyed the industry.  Can you imagine what our railroads would be like if an adequate flow of capital had been encouraged between 1920 to 1970?  Instead of constantly shrinking railways, we could even see real growth and prosperity.

Norm

Norman Orfall
Helendale, CA
TIOGA PASS, a private railcar

The Land Grant thing is a thorny issue. I see it effectively as a very long term loan with a lot of interest paid in terms of reduced rates, not really a subsidy.

Did the railroads without the land grants have to match the lowered rates for the government traffic?

Without railroads all that land was worthless.

JB -Omaha

The land grant thing is a red herring at present, and has little relevance to discussions about what are reasonable cotnracts to enter into and enforce today. No contract is unbounded by time, and the land grant thing has become quite irrelevant for discssion of current times quite a while back.

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> NARP is only tooting its own horn without
> semblance of reality.


"Blow da whistle!"