Reply #19: You know why that is? [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1) Amtrak is seriously underfunded (the 9/11 bailout of the airlines by itself added up to more money than Amtrak has gotten in its entire history) and is unable to make capital investments. There is only one train in each direction every 24 hours, so if a car has to be taken out for repairs along the line, that slows down the entire route.

2) Amtrak is required to make way for all freight trains. This was the deal worked out with the freight railroads. If there are a lot of freight trains, too bad.

3) Like planes, trains are subjected to weather-related delays. They don't necessarily stop for bad weather, as planes do, but they slow to a crawl. There may have been bad weather north of you where the train came from.

What Amtrak needs is decent funding, so that

1) It can run more than one train per route every 24 hours.

2) It can build its own tracks, preferably welded tracks for high-speed rail, as they have in Japan

It also needs to renegotiate with the freight lines so that it has the right of way. A load of lumber doesn't care when it gets to its destination. People do.