The One Tiny Law That Keeps Amtrak Terrible
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 ม.ค. 2023
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Writing by Sam Denby and Tristan Purdy
Editing by Alexander Williard
Animation led by Josh Sherrington
Sound by Graham Haerther
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster
Historic US rail map data courtesy Bygone Maps, LLC and licensed under CC-BY-SA (historic rail graphics correspondently avaliable under a CC-BY-SA license)
References
[1] homesignalblog.wordpress.com/...
[2] wx4.org/to/foam/maps/2Wx4/001...
[3] wx4.org/to/foam/maps/2Wx4/001...
[4] www.trains.com/trn/news-revie...
[5] www.trains.com/trn/news-revie...
[6] www.oig.dot.gov/sites/default...
[7] media.amtrak.com/wp-content/u...
[8] www.freightwaves.com/news/eco...
[9] www.freightwaves.com/news/fre...
[10] www.enotrans.org/article/amtr...
[11] transportgeography.org/conten...
Just going to give a shout out to former Amtrak CEO Richard Anderson, who worked for free between 2017 and 2020 and came so painfully close to making Amtrak profitable…. Until Covid hit. The guy really tried his best to both improve Amtrak and prevent it from running at a loss and I was really rooting for the guy, Covid sort of threw things off though.
I’ve been curious, why wasn’t his contract extended?
Repeat after me: Public services do not need to run a profit.
Keep repeating until you understand why that is a fact.
(your roads for example run at an enormous huge unfathomable loss all of them)
Your roads and car-centric shit are the reason all your cities go bankrupt.
@@zeveroarerules toll roads would like to have a word with you.
I remember the old video on Amtrak by this channel, that his plan was to cut services and keep profitable services still running instead of improving or extending them. Good thing he got replaced
As an Amtrak midwest user he was a total disaster. The states essentially had to run the show. Not to mention there is *no* upgrade path for super-liners. They can’t cut service bit they’ll make it so ass it becomes unusable
For those wondering, Amtrak's plans for new trains is called Connects US. It is a list of routes less than 750 miles in length, those which require state funding, which can be setup and run in a fairly short time frame. If all of the routes in this plan are created, Amtrak's daily trains will approximately double. A small step towards a much better rail system. Additionally, the FRA has created Corridor ID/Connect ID, a inquiry into new routes, some of which are in Connects US, which will be eligible for federal funding for startup costs. Those startup costs are most of the costs involved, so having those covered essentially guarantees a route will happen.
They are also replacing most if not all of their rolling stock with new trains by siemens in California.
Also several states like Utah and Ohio are expanding their own local train service to connect to Amtack.
There are also some interesting private, investor-backed routes starting up in Florida and elsewhere around the country. At some point, the standoff between passenger rail will have to be solved; maybe investors crying foul will be more persuasive to the federal govt than the struggles of its own passenger service (Amtrak).
Appreciate you sharing some good in-depth info.
I am glad this is happening, but I'm bummed that we're just getting lots more slow rails in random places. I would much prefer getting real modern fast rail in the Northeast corridor.
With the nightmare that flying and airports have become, I hope trains make a huge comeback and upgrade the dated passenger trains
they dont want you to travel... Wake up.
@@lt1montess What the hell does that mean. Who and why?
@@alext8828 You have to understand that travel is freedom it's that simple. They don't want people to travel. Why do you think gas is so expensive ? There is enough oil in the Earth Which gives us time too propel us into some kind of fusion or something that is more self sustaining and not so environmentally damaging. I do not really believe it is environmentally damaging because I've looked at both sides. The point is they do not want you to travel!!! They don't want you to be free.
Simply look at a single
jail cell . Typifies confinement. Your confinement is by a 6 by 8' cell. Next is of course the neighborhood then city then state then The country Then the world .
It's all about freedom in all areas taking it back one step at a time because of the oblivious low IQ populace They are succeeding wonderfully. They being the authoritarians , starting at a world level like happened in Davos Mexico. These b******* low life Tutorials slave masters Workers of evil and the demonic. Who else but a German would want to go back to the concentration camps , old Klaus is a real nazi. Once again the world doesn't seem to get it. This is what happens when you do not teach history true history in the classroom. If you don't teach kids what authoritarianism looks like and how to work against it the world will always end up with one man in charge and that man this time will be the Anti-Christ. And you're not gonna be Is Claus Schwab that's for sure.
If I read the scriptures correctly it's going to be someone who has the most charisma of any man who's ever lived. It will be Lucifer that old devil himself.
@@cliffgriffen623 I can't tell if you're joking or not.
You have to understand that travel is freedom it's that simple. They don't want people to travel. Why do you think gas is so expensive ? There is enough oil in the Earth Which gives us time too propel us into some kind of fusion or something that is more self sustaining and not so environmentally damaging. I do not really believe it is environmentally damaging because I've looked at both sides. The point is they do not want you to travel!!! They don't want you to be free.
Simply look at a single
jail cell . Typifies confinement. Your confinement is by a 6 by 8' cell. Next is of course the neighborhood then city then state then The country Then the world .
It's all about freedom in all areas taking it back one step at a time because of the oblivious low IQ populace They are succeeding wonderfully. They being the authoritarians , starting at a world level like happened in Davos Mexico. These b******* low life Tutorials slave masters Workers of evil and the demonic. Who else but a German would want to go back to the concentration camps , old Klaus is a real nazi. Once again the world doesn't seem to get it. This is what happens when you do not teach history true history in the classroom. If you don't teach kids what authoritarianism looks like and how to work against it the world will always end up with one man in charge and that man this time will be the Anti-Christ. And you're not gonna be Is Claus Schwab that's for sure.
If I read the scriptures correctly it's going to be someone who has the most charisma of any man who's ever lived. It will be Lucifer that old devil himself.
That opening line: "Imagine an America where you could just go anywhere by train."
For me, that's less something I imagine and more something I dream about.
And then that further line, "This America existed."
And that's where the pain sets in.
Damn. Yeah.
Thanks a lot GM, Ford, Chrysler, and the Interstate Highway Act for forcing your mode only on everyone, right at the time the U.S. peaked in constructing big projects.
I think train travel could be a lot more popular in the US than a lot of people may realize. I don't think as many people are in love with their cars as American pop culture leads us to believe. People constantly complain about traffic on highways or on their commute, the price of gas, idiot drivers, limited parking, etc. You wouldn't have to worry about any of those things if travel by train was easier. I know it would be a really big project, but if we could make a series of small, imperfect steps, like the video says, to improve Amtrak, and if US towns and cities move towards more density and walkability, I think you would see a huge increase in ridership, which would allow for more and bigger improvements to Amtrak. And I think you could lift a significant number of people out of poverty because they would no longer have to pay for cars they can't really afford just to live their everyday life. And they'd have good access to higher-paying jobs in wealthier parts of a city. That's my dream anyway. Sorry for the rant, and thanks for reading the whole thing.
Travel by train is still vibrant within the TrainHopping Subculture and you pay zero money and simply pack 2 days of food/water and hop on the ladder on the side of Grain Tanker
This America would have to get rid of that private property thingy. Unless the government wants to build their own right of way.
@@geisaune793what you said is true tho
A little more than 10 years ago, Virginia got passenger service back to Norfolk for the first time since Amtrak's founding. It was one of those imperfect steps. The train left once a day at 4:50am. It had to leave so early because of track conditions along the route, slowing the train to a crawl in places. So after a couple of years of ridership growing slowly despite the early departure, the state gave the freight railroads (CSX and Norfolk Southern) money to fix the offending stretch of rail so Amtrak could run at higher speeds. The departure time moved to 6am and ridership grew so much so quickly that they added a 9am departure in 2019 (suspended during the pandemic, returned in late 2021) and a 1pm departure in 2022. That imperfect step a decade or so ago made possible the service we have today. But if we had to wait for it to be perfect, it would have never happened.
A few years ago, the Northeast regional left Lynchburg, VA at 6am and there was a bus that would pick up folks from Blacksburg and Roanoke. Demand was good, so they built a new platform in downtown Roanoke and now you can get on in Roanoke at 6am and get to DC in about 5 hours, which isn't a whole lot slower than driving. Recently, the Virginia government worked with the railroads to get some improvements done and eventually the NE Regional will extend to Blacksburg. Demand on this route is enough now for two trains instead of the previous one. And its only $30 bucks. If I drive to DC I can't afford to park my car for less than that. I'm really appreciative of the state government here that is putting in a lot of work negotiating to make rail service in our state just a little bit better.
I live in C'ville along the NER line and honestly I prefer taking Amtrak when I travel just cause i can hop on my local bus to the station and be there in time for my train. Plus I've seen plenty of people whenever I travel heading to all myriad places. Last year i took Amtrak to New York and we got there in roughly 6 and half hours so pretty decent demand on our end.
Bingo. A perfect example of why imperfect solutions and compromise get more shit done than playing hardball. Virginia has now built upon that success by purchasing the whole ex-RF&P mainline between Richmond and DC from CSX, on the condition that they implement capital improvements, as part of their next goal being to establish hourly service from Richmond to DC. Newport News is also building a new station, out of the way of CSX's massive coal terminal here, to support higher frequencies to that part of Hampton Roads as well, and VDOT is working to build a new James River railroad bridge so all Amtrak trains to Hampton Roads can serve Richmond Main Street. CSX gets enough capacity to keep their operations going, and VDOT gets to expand passenger service. Everyone gets what they want. At this point, there's enough public faith in VDOT that even the traditionally anti-infrastructure and especially anti-rail Republicans are leaving these plans in place now that they're back in power.
Now imagine if Virginia had taken the Scott Walker approach instead, and just canceled restoring Regional service to Norfolk because they couldn't get a more convenient departure time out of Amtrak. Or if they did what Wendover and most of the comments section are suggesting, and tried to either tried to seize the CSX/NS mainlines by fiat, or force the freight railroads to pay for the infrastructure improvements themselves. Rail service to Hampton Roads would be absolute shit, if it existed at all, and under constant threat of cancellation because it sucks. You get out what you put in when it comes to infrastructure, and the same is true of partnering with the private sector versus fighting them.
And therein lies part of the problem, the cargo companies expect the government to pay the bill for the problems they cause so that their profits are not affected.
@@Cier433 the railroads expect the government to pay for it because it’s all done for Amtrak.
As someone from Kentucky who has lived in Louisville for the past 6 years, it sucks to know that we used to have passenger rail service to the city but it shut down in 2003. If we got service again, I would no doubt use it to take trips to Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Chicago for weekend trips, concerts, etc instead of having to drive. Literally a dream of mine, really hoping that Amtrak's plans get through.
I've made the drive to to and from Chicago/Louisville/Cincinnati I've made a day trip out of Cincinnati a few times a year it's not that bad of a drive. I also hate walking anything more than 1/4mi. If I can avoid it I will.
Same here from Columbus Ohio
this is a big reason why i live in nyc. i can get to so many places via train from here, and also non stop flights to pretty much everywhere on earth all without needing to step into a car. it’s a great way to live
@@Nunya1721 I was just gonna say this. It makes me so sad every time I see that arch from the old union station downtown. I'm holding out hope for the new 3 Cs + D plan though
It's galling that Kansas had better mass transit in 1890 then it does today
The thing I like about amtrak is that despite being a corporation, they really do seem to understand that their role is to provide a *public service* to their customers. As someone who semi-regularly uses their high-speed Acela, I have to say that while service and reliability are far from perfect, they're at least *trying* with the limited resources they have.
corporation?!?! it's the US governement. passenger rail isn't profitable, you'll never find a corporate passenger rail line in america ever again. riding the acela is basically riding a nicer subway train
@@timregan1005 In the 2022 fiscal year, Japan Rail East generated a profit of 422 Billion yen (almost $3 billion) just from the high speed passenger rail.
@andreapassante5653 JRE isn't run by the Japanese government, it's privately run. Apples and oranges comparison.
@@pdawg193
Irrelevant. The statement was that passenger rail isn't profitable. I posted data to refute that.
@@timregan1005travel is more profitable by hour, freight is more profitable by quarter (3 months)
Like if semi trucks also being busses
They didn't wanna diversify the network and made it work
As a European, being used to a 98% on time train service, I I'm really rooting for amtrack to make this work. Its so worth it!
I can envision it. It just needs a big dump of money to make new, separate, straight rails so they never have to worry about conflicting traffic again. I think that like every major American project, it needs to be painted in a "we're the best" kind of light to get anything done. Like, wow, look at America over there with the world's first super sonic trains. Yee haw, kick ass, go America woo-hoo! And stuff like that lol
98%? Where do you live, Switzerland?
@@Subreon one way we do it here is that the rail infrastructure itself is owned by state agencies or companies, and thus the management of it and what may run on it and how isn't controlled by the rail lines themselves. It's not a perfect system, of course, but it sure works to control a lot of the selfishness inherent to the American system.
@@mullerman1104 no, the Netherlands. I just looked it up, and i was incorrect about the actual percentage, its hovering somewhere between 92 and 96 percent. They do count all the ones that are 5 minutes late though, which isn't really a big deal when commuting. And they'll usually cancel anything more than 20 minutes late because most services are half hourly.
In Poland state-owned railways run on state-owned tracks between state-owned stations. Everything else is also state-owned as rail industry is strategic one. Over the past 30+ years passenger service got worse and worse as overgrown bureaucracy can't work at all when forced to use capitalist rule book instead of communist one it was grown since WWII. The most common word a passenger of polish national rail is "opóźniony", or "delayed". It is considered a minor miracle if the train runs on time.
Side note: there are multiple railway companies here, passenger service was split by the region, freight one, PKP-Cargo is the only one that turns profit, and each other aspect of railway operation belongs to different company. All of them are state-owned and state-operated, and there are dozens of them. It's all a unfunny joke run by people selected not for their competence but by their political connections. So if you think your rail sucks, then come to Poland and buy a ticket. I dare you!
In The Netherlands people are really upset because 95% on time became 91%. Note: over 3 minutes will count as a delay. On the less busy stations the connecting trains will often wait.
I don't even remember what counts as "late" in the U.S.... 20 minutes? 2 hours?
In nations that prioritize passenger rails first, I'd feel the same way
In Russia it’s always on time, and it always amuses me, cutting through all the thousands of km of snow with a *98% on time, but personally never seen them late even one minute
* source : Russian Railways’ Press Service report in 2018
Yeah the dutch also complain about their bike infrastructure, while it's also no doubt, the best in the world!
They do well complaining because shooting for the stars and not be happy with the status quo is a good thing, but it's funny how there is more complain about bike infrastructure in the netherland, then, for example, in my country italy, where it sucks everywhere but in some cities in the north
You get a letter of apology from the train service stating it is their fault in Japan.
I’ve taken Amtrak from winter park Colorado to Glenwood springs, and while the train was horrifically behind schedule, we weren’t in a hurry and the ride was almost luxurious. The seats were massive and much less cramped than an airplane, there were dedicated cars with massive windows for viewing the beautiful nature we traveled through, snack bars on the lower decks of some cars, plenty of room for everyone to move around, etc. Overall a much more pleasant experience than flying and I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
I doubt that Amtrak is going to be able to sell passenger rail on the basis that "It's great if you're not in a hurry to arrive at your destination"
Amtrak in the Northeast is great. I was able to hope on the train with my family and end up in in NYC on time a few hours later. Where they own the tracks it is a great service.
"’ve taken Amtrak from winter park Colorado to Glenwood springs, and while the train was horrifically behind schedule, we weren’t in a hurry and the ride was almost luxurious"
It's also only 129 miles, so, much shorter than most intercity distances in the USA. There's not even a flight available (yet...when eVTOLs come out you'll be able to fly). Plus those are both fairly small towns that wouldn't justify a huge expenditure to do high speed rail or whatever.
It doesn't scale to SF to LA (despite the majority of my fellow Californians having voted yes on prop 1a in 2008 that authorized spending on an HSR), which is 380 miles, which is over twice the distance. You're looking at three hour train, at least (probably more like 4 hour train...but it's never going to be completed, long story), vs one hour flight.
Sweet spot for HSR is about 200 miles with a dense city at each end. We have maybe five or six areas like that in the USA and they're far enough apart that you still need to fly from area to area.
@@neutrino78x " one hour flight." plus hours in the airport being treated like cattle.
@@geriroush8004
"" one hour flight." plus hours in the airport being treated like cattle."
Yep. From here (silicon valley) to Los Angeles or San Diego or Las Vegas is a quick one hour flight. There is absolutely no need to be in the airport for hours. If you are, you did it wrong (with the obvious exception of weather delays, Amtrak has to cancel trains in whiteout conditions too btw).
I have "clear" so security is five minutes. If I didn't use that, it would be 20. Still not hours.
I check in beforehand on the app. Again, not hours.
The only time I arrive at the airport more than an hour before scheduled takeoff is when I'm coming back, have lots of time, and would rather sit at the airport than the hotel room.
We have lots of trains in here in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I use them. I don't know how to drive. But if I have to go more than 200 miles or so, I'm flying. I have places to go, things to see, and people to do, baby.
I live in the Quad Cities on the border of Iowa and Illinois. The death of the Rock Island Line killed the connectivity of this town. My Dad welded for them and was laid off and it caused a cascading effect of job loss here. They’ve been teasing of Amtrak service coming here for my whole life but it’s never happened. The fact that Amtrak doesn’t run through here and connects with Des Moines is absolutely brain dead. They run a route about an hour or so south instead through a series of smaller dying metropolitan areas. A high speed rail corridor would make daily travel to Chicago or Des Moines feasible here. There is nearly 400k people here.
Thanks to amtraks’s connect US program there should be an Amtrak train to Des Moines within the next 15 years
@@CreatorPolar That would be nice. I Hope really hope the area isn’t oppressive for future generations and it promotes the growth it never saw when I grew up. I’ve seen old photos of the area from 100 years ago or so and believe it was actually something pretty special at one time.
"The Rock" also served Peoria which to this day continues to lack passenger service. By the way, the last time regularly scheduled passenger train served Des Moines was on May 31, 1970. The last time there was regularly scheduled passenger service for the Quad Cities was on December 31, 1978.
What "dying metropolitan areas" do they run through? From what I can tell the Southwest Chief between Chicago and Kansas City runs through a whole lot of nothing in particular (and it's not "high speed" unless your definition of "high speed" is "as much as 65-70 miles per hour in some places").
One glaring example of why you don't want to abandon routes is the Lackawanna Cutoff in New Jersey. One of the best engineered stretches of track on the East Coast was abandoned and removed as part of Conrail's consolidation. Rumor has it that one reason was developers wanted to put casinos in the Poconos, which would compete with Atlantic City, and New Jersey didn't want that.
In 2003 New Jersey Transit announced the planning of restoration of the line. The main reason was the main artery, I-80, was overloaded with traffic from commuter traffic. The problem is the road only has four lanes and there is no room to add another.
Fast forward to today. Roughly a quarter of the track and one station have built. With luck service will be restored in 2026. Restoring the rest of the line is projected to take another 15 years.
Chuck Schumer wants this line extended to Binghampton, Even with his backing it is still taking forever. So far it's taken 20 years to replace a quarter of the removed track. The original construction took three years.
sounds like a marital problem- lackawanna cutoff
I wish that Passaic had a second train station.
The rails were built with migrant labor. Wouldn’t the unions have a fit if we allowed temporary migrants from SE Asia and Central America to improve our infrastructure at a reasonable cost?
@@lukethompson5558 Saying they were "built with migrant labor" is one hell of a way to refer to the slave and underpaid labor of immigrants, mistreated and forced to work in deadly conditions for near-nothing pay in most cases.
There has to be more to it other than the fact we can’t use slaves anymore.
Everyone along the Colorado front range has been begging for a train for years. I have not met a single person who said they would prefer to drive to Denver over a train. Palmer saw this exact vision when he placed Colorado Springs back in the 1870s and the fact that we back tracked is ridiculous. The whole town is there because of the railroad.
One thing trains along the Front Range have an opportunity to do is address one of mass transit's big issues in the US: how do you get around once you get to your destination. Rental cars are fine, but they can be a hassle, especially for short trips. Colorado Springs and Denver are, at least right now, just not setup for mass transit. With a train, you could load your car, ride the train, then use your car to get around once you get there. Perhaps not the utopian idea of a carless society, but it's a step in the right direction.
And yeah, the trip to Denver is much better now that the gap project is done, but it's only a matter of time before it gets congested again. Then what? 8 lanes? 10 lanes? The Front Range will likely end up as one the countries megacities (almost a real world version of Saudi Arabia's ridiculous The Line) . Best to figure this stuff out now. Can't make a big change all at once, but we might be able to a step at a time.
@@ccoder4953 I wish they created street cars, e-bike rentals and bikelanes
I'd recommend checking out some of the bus services that run along the corridor if you haven't. I used Bustang for a few years to get to Denver and it was quite reliable.
At least the North Suburbs of Denver finally have their commuter line into the city, although it came almost a decade late and we actually had to sue the state to get it after we voted to increase our taxes to fund the project and then they tried to cut us from the plan.
That said, I agree it needs to be more. We really need a line for the entire entire front range.
Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman can take the train to Denver, but YOU can't.
I wish this video talked more about how this Amtrak dream across America EXISTS in the northeast where Amtrak owns the tracks. I live in NYC, don’t have a car, and take trains everyday. Whether it’s the subway to get to work, commuter rail to visit friends in New Jersey and Connecticut, and Amtrak Acela when heading to Philly or Boston or DC, the American rail dream exists here and it’s amazing. I just wish the rest of America got to experience it as well.
Still wish Amtrak ticket prices would go down, especially during holidays. They gauge the prices at holidays because they know they’ll finally make money
ah yes I get jealous of the people I know up north just causally taking a train from chicago to new york lol. meanwhile here in florida there is one amtrak rail that goes out of state and it sucks
Not even tbh prices are way too high
@@Ryan-cb1ei they don’t have enough train cars to significantly raise capacity. I doubt they’ll spend much (or any) money on increasing capacity when the new train sets are just a few years away (or even just a few months for the Acela)
It doesn't just exist where Amtrak owns the tracks. On lines where the freight railroads run the passenger operations as well, such as Brightline in Florida, or even the Metra BNSF and UP lines in Chicago, passenger trains absolutely do get priority all the time. And services on some corridors (Empire Corridor, Cascades, Virginia Northeast Regionals, Pacific Surfliner) that receive state support are still quite good for OTP, even if they run on tracks owned by freight railroads, because the state governments either jointly funded infrastructure improvements to reduce delays or set up incentives systems to reward freight railroads for assigning priority. Instead of constantly fighting with the freight railroads, more agencies - Amtrak included - need to figure out how to work constructively with them so both sides get what they want.
Michigan set a good example by upgrading Amtrak's Michigan line, then using that project as a template to buy up the NS-owned portion and upgrading it too. Virginia and North Carolina have since followed the same path by buying up the RF&P and S line from CSX in order to fund capital improvements that don't make sense for the private railroad to make. Commuter agencies like Coaster, Metrolink, Caltrain, and Sounder have also brokered compromises with the freight railroads that opened the door for very promising improvement projects.
On the flip side, what has Amtrak's strategy of complaining to the DoJ and trying to play hardball gotten them in the last 51 years? Nothing. The trains are still late, Amtrak insists on making payments of pennies per passenger-mile to the freight railroads (rates which don't even cover the wear and tear they exert), and freight railroads still don't give a toss because Amtrak doesn't pay competitively compared to their own freight customers. The lesson should be clear for all those who think the solution is punishment: you get out what you put in.
Thank you for explaining why any kind of large infrastructure must NOT belong to some corporation.
It wouldn't exist if a company didn't build it.
@@JDMNINJA851 that company wouldn't have made it if a government hadn't paid for it
@@MarcelaElviraTimis except if the corporation/company can get only investors involved which is what happened when the railroads were starting out. But in a way you're correct that, at least for track and rail right of ways, it should be government owned like our roads, highways, and inter-/intrastate highways.
It seems from the video that government intervention was a big cause in the downfall of rail
@@killdamnation where governments OWN railways, passenger trains aren't screwed over by some greedy corporation that puts together 1mile trains staffed by ONE employee
Passengers feel like hostages on the Sunset Limited when it takes almost five hours to travel the last dozen miles into New Orleans. My train was already late, so it was not a priority for the local freight network dispatchers. They seemed to handle us grudgingly. We were like a fly caught in a spiderweb!
Amtrak train crew added to the misery by closing the dining and snack cars - on schedule - meaning passengers were really HANGRY when we finally rolled into NOLA, at 2am!
Part of that problem is that after Katrina, Amtrak did not continue the route to Florida after the tracks were repaired. So Florida has had to suffer with just one way out of the State. Which gets shutdown by storms that hit the Carolinas, Virginia, and Georgia. As a lot of those areas are single track, a single freight accident can cause the whole system to collapse. Example of that was a recent 29 hour run of Auto-Train's. A run that normally takes half that. On the weather front, a hurricane saw our trip delayed by two weeks and at that, we still were delayed in the travels. A 9PM departure from Lorton, VA ( normal is 5PM ) and a 4:30PM arrival in Sanford, FL when the normal is 8AM. And if there is an expected storm, Amtrak just shuts down service on the route. When the Sunset Limited continued to Florida, you could always use it to get to where you needed except in the directly affected area. But then I remember Amtrak before all the cost cutting. We actually had decent service in Florida. With the cost cutting, the long distance trains to/from Florida actually started losing money when they had been ones that showed a profit. And who in the heck would cut the Silver Meteor when it was the only one that could make connections in DC for travel to the mid-West? And just run the Silver Star that couldn't. Back in the early days of Amtrak you could go from Miami to Tampa and back in the same day and have lunch in Tampa. Same with Miami to Winter Park and return.
When you have a monopoly you can do whatever you want.
@@gravelydon7072Specifically, Amtrak was not able to continue the route to Florida, because the freight railroads realized that if they replaced the tracks to freight standards but not to passenger standards, they wouldn't have to deal with those pesky Amtrak trains on that part of the line any more. Amtrak has been vigorously protesting this, but enforcement is slow to arrive.
@@katherinec2759Yep. And now it is even worse.
@@katherinec2759 So what incentive do the freight railroads have for making their lines suitable for passenger trains?
My single data point anecdote: there’s a ski train from Denver to winter park, Colorado during weekends in the winter. Most passenger takes it to do day trips to to skiing at winter park resort. We’re supposed to depart Denver a 7am and arrived at winter park resort at 9am, and get our full day of skiing before leaving the resort at 4:30. This is very convenient and high value, since it saves the passengers from a sometimes difficult drive across the continental divide.
My one time taking that train was about 20 years ago. We ended up stuck behind a coal train and a 2 hour journey turned into 4 hours, and our 7 hour ski day shrank to less than 5. The whole time we were waiting for that coat train to pass, all I heard was people saying the coal has been i the ground for millions of years, surely it can wait a few more hours. I and my family have never taken that ski train again after that.
If they could just get reliable trains (emphasis on reliable) that go from DIA, through Denver, and to some major ski towns, it would get so much use and reduce traffic on I-70 a ton. Until there are major changes with the rail system, though, the only hope for such a train to exist is if Colorado were to host the Winter Olympics (which would have its own set of problems)
I would have to say the only trains I’ll take are places that are to short to economically fly to. But the drive is torture. No traffic, but just torture.
Like the LA to Vegas train. I’ll take that train as long as it’s cheaper than flying. Because the drive is torture. You look at desert for 5 out of the 6 hours.
That ski train no longer runs, it shut down in 2009, the new one is run by Amtrak and is more efficient
I like how started your comment with "My single data point anecdote", instead of "My friend had this experience once which PrOvEs my viewpoint".
However, instead of swearing off the train forever, you should get all your fellow passengers together in a class-action lawsuit against the freight company for "insurrection" towards the federal government.
I'm starting the believe that the events portrayed in the film "Unstoppable" were _highly_ accurate and NOT sensationalized.
But this is more tourism than passenger rail - in Europe and Asia a seasonal tourist train would be considered a failure. It's about arriving at a station and a train runs all the time. This is rail passenger service. Not ski trains, dinner trains or seasonal trains. They are novelties and not rail transport in a meaningful sense.
Very timely. My own Amtrak trip last week was delayed 40 minutes FROM ITS STARTING STATION due to a freight train. Ended up being more than an hour late to our destination and completely obliterated our plans for connections home
A couple months ago, I was taking a Texas Eagle from Austin to St. Louis, but a freight train broke down on the tracks between Austin and Dallas, and wasn't going to get running again for at least 24 hours, so they put us on busses instead. It was really frustrating, because instead of a comfortable train ride, it was cramped and uncomfortable.... One of the main reasons I took the train rather than plane. :|
that's pretty lucky by amtrak standards. I had a trip that ended up 2 hours late to it's destination.
I used to take train from Portland ME to Brunswick ME, a trip of 40 minutes and 25 miles. Last time I tried, there was a 90 minute delay. I could have almost walked.
Oh man I wish I was only 40 minutes late. My last two trips with Amtrak were delayed 4 & 2 hours respectively due to freight trains
Do you know if you were in single track territory or double track territory? If you were in single track that would explain your problem. In single track CTC operation, trains have to run opposite ways passing each other at certain points along the right of way. If there was already another train ahead of you in the single track territory, their really isn't anywhere else the train could've gone...
I travel from Arkansas to Texas and back with Amtrak several times a year. Even with the delays, it’s more convenient when traveling with kids. I just wish the rail system went to more places like it use to.
As someone who grew up in suburban New York, I really wish it were possible for Amtrak to build its own dedicated high speed rail line from Boston to DC. Currently there’s a stretch of rail it shares with Metronorth that was not built for any type of real speed.
as someone who also lives over here, it will be a massive waste of money and time.
@@timregan1005As someone who used to live on the East Coast, it would not be a waste of money and time because lots of people take that commute
Cost to acquire the land alone, are prohibitive to high speed rail in the NE. That’s some of the most expensive real estate in the country.
@@sdownin72nationalize freight land then - the freight railroads in our nation suck worse than the government ever could.
The metro north stretch can go pretty fast - I used to commute to NYC by train and the regular ones peak at around 80mph
Canada, too. 😢 It sucks so much to have to wait for a freight train.
I wonder how much better the US and Canada would be if they had spent trillions on rail and public transit over the past 70 years, instead of only stroads and highways.
Love your videos
why is this comment not at the top?
@@HSstudio.Ytchnnl because the video was literally posted 7hrs ago 😐
Love your videos, your reaction to the 1950’s car propaganda is fantastic
not all train can be freccia rossa executive class
On my first Amtrak ride, I ate lunch with the amish and was in the middle of an FBI raid. The ride was 14 hours long. The drive was 6 hours.
Sounds like good fun
The hell happened? Did someone stick a grenade up their caboose or drugs?
That would be pure communism if the government acted on behalf of sensible regulation (rules for capitalist) and would send the USA straight to hell, boy! :)
Well yeah if there’s an ongoing fbi raid on the train yeah it’s gonna take a while
Now THAT'S my idea of a fun time.
Just a few days after I watched this video, the Ohio East Palestine train derailment incident happened. Many major issues mentioned in this video about the greed of rail companies led to it, and now we are left with a massive environmental, social and economic damage.
as a college student who lived in Grand Forks, seeing it as the example makes me feel better about the hours I lost waiting for trains
This video should have been called, "One Giant Agency Fails to Enforce One Tiny Law, and This Keeps Amtrak Terrible". Seems like if the DOJ would just do its job, the freight lines would behave.
If the DOJ did it's job. Warren Buffett would have some government lawyers assassinated.
What incentive do we have to prioritize passenger rail over freight?
Lobby group are to powerfull in the USA and shame your politicians work for lobby group and not for the people, this is why I believe America isn't a true democracy
They're never gonna behave unless the gov literally nationalizes the lot of em (or at least heavily threatens it)
@@Sparta955 people > money
In B.C. Canada they had BC rail. 23 bucks could take you all the way north in a day. The cars were near full every time I took the trip. Views you can not see any other way than to walk. Then they started charging $500 for the same trip and people stopped taking it. Then they said there is no support for passenger rail in BC. Now there is no rail or bus travel in B.C. There is no public transportation in BC outside cities.
Most people ignore that this is an issue with most of the super large countries. Where is the passenger rails in Canada or Australia? Its all about population density.
@@corruptedpoison1Did you read what they just wrote?
@@corruptedpoison1 Canada and Australia have some of the most remote and sparsely populated places on earth, vast swaths of territory, whereas the US;,with the exception of Alaska has only pockets of sparsely populated places generally in the north central part of the country, in the mountain west. Australia has pretty good passenger rail systems throughout their version of the sunbelt but only cruise trains through the outback, and Canada has poor rail systems outside of cities. Neither Canada nor Australia have a comprehensive transcontinental freeway network, and Canada kinda relies on the US's Interstate Highways for fast and economical driving across the USA.
They really aren't good comparisons to the US for transportation systems, they both have flaws and some positive transportation initiatives. More importantly aside from speaking the same language and other cultural similarities they just have very different geography from the US, their interiors being far less inhabited than the American interior.
@@kms1.62 Canada does have a transcontinental highway. It's isn't a massive freeway over the whole span since there are few users in the low-populated areas, though near Vancouver (for example) its up to 8 lanes.
@@kms1.62 roughly half of Canada's population lives in the Quebec Windsor Corridor, which is roughly only 700 miles and home to the busiest highway (401) in all of north america. Yet the only rail service shares cargo tracks making it slow, which means that it has some of the busiest short-haul flight rules in North America as well. I don't think anyone is proposing to build a mag-lev train from Inuvik to Rankin Inlet, but the lack of proper passenger rail service in areas like that clearly can't be blamed on population density.
I live in Denver, CO and I would absolutely LOVE seeing passenger rail on the front range.
I think about it a lot as a student on the front range and someone who also grew up there. Denver wants to be revitalized and I can 100 percent say I would go to Denver 2x as often if there was good transit to and from
In the summer of 1963, I worked in the commissary for the Milwaukee Road in Chicago. We provided all food, drinks, alcoholic beverages and ice for the Streamliners: the Hiawatha and the Empire Builder. At that time, railroads were adding maintenance-of-way and freight breakdown costs to the reported passenger service financial statistics. It was an industry wide effort to support elimination of passenger service.
1963 is when Chicago lost an Interurban train
Wikipedia: In 2021, the House draft of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act included a section (titled "Amtrak Preference Enforcement") giving Amtrak the ability to sue host railroads for damages caused by excessive freight train interference. However, it was removed from the Senate version in S.Amdt.2137, introduced by Senator Kyrsten Sinema on August 1.
It would be interesting to see if she has ever received Railroad Donor money or a promise of a seat on the board after her Senate retirement. politicians don't work for their electorate
@@rockerjim8045 Politicians who sells out should have their names put on public boards and voted out.
@@rockerjim8045 I almost immediately found an example of such. If you go to opensecrets, look up the Association for American Railroads PAC, and go to the party contributions tab for the 2020 cycle, then right there at the top of the list is a donation to Sinema.
However, US politics has so many donations from everyone to everyone else that determining whether this is a SIGNIFICANT source of her funding would take far more research than I'm prepared to do.
@@rockerjim8045 I guess politicians stopped receiving free railroad passes in the 19th century?
Of course Kuntsten Sinema did it
Just got back from a trip to CA on the Zephyr. Encountered two stuck freights just outside of Elko, NV that set us back almost 12 hrs. Amtrak gave me a $150 voucher, even though it wasn't their fault. You just can't make plans too close to your arrival time. BTW, you meet some of the most interesting people on Amtrak.
Yeah. I took the _Capitol Limited_ almost 10 years ago and had conversations with a geneticist from India, an off-Broadway stage actor, the combo bus driver/pyro technician/merch guy for a band, and a DJ whose _name_ was DJ. You don't get those kinds of experiences on a plane or even a Greyhound, nevermind driving around on a freeway.
Awesome scenery, too.
Indeed, the atmosphere on a train is more sociable for some reason.
it's my dream to take that ride some day. How was it?
12 hours? I thought me being delayed 7 hours from Reno to Salt Lake was pretty bad. But I do want to ride it again.
Very interesting and informative video. One thing you didn't mention is that the railroads pay taxes on existing trackage which is an incentive for the railroads to abandon unused lines. Also, eliminating double tracking allows for easing curves and reduces maintenance and labor costs. Taking Amtrak from Baltimore to Cincinnati takes 22 hours. Driving takes 9 hours. Flying is just a one and a half hour flight. We love riding the trains, but it is not practical when you want to get there in a timely fashion. Thanks for the video.
I started working for a railroad in 1975 and every year watched the abandonment of so many different lines. It wasn't clear to me why this was happening. With this video it starts to make sense why the system evolved to where it is today. Thanks for the all this information.
Minor correction at 6:58- the two companies on the left, Burlington Northern and C&O, had both been consolidated into larger companies by the 1990s. Burlington Northern's logo should instead be BNSF Railway, and the C&O logo should instead be CSX Transportation.
I think he means pre-1990s mergers and splits
@@cjuice9039 Yeah, but then there were more than 4 Class 1 railroads.
@@cjuice9039 Look how the other 3 companies consumed the lesser companies. BN did not consume BNSF, BNSF consumed BN. Notice how he says these four companies now control freight, but BN doesn't exist anymore, it should be BNSF that is shown.
where's kansas city southern
@@HTV-2_Hypersonic_Glide_Vehicle it was for showcase of which companies ate the rest, yes BN is now BNSF, but that's because they were the larger company and it's mostly just nitpicking when its a small segment of the video and the point gets across, that from so many railroads now only 4 remain
A few years ago, I rode the Empire Builder route from St Paul Minnesota, to Seattle Washington. After a few days in Seattle I rode it back again. It was a two day trip each way. It was a wonderful experience! The views i saw from the train were breathtaking at times.
Yeah, waking up just prior to the train pulling into *Dunsmuir* in Northern California was surreal. Then, southbound crossing this one really big Bridge somewhere around the Bay Area…
I *much* prefer the train.
You're breathtaking!
Key phrase…a few years ago. They have removed the restaurant cars. Now all that’s available are frozen TV dinners and gas station biscuits. They can’t blame it on covid anymore. It’s just a way to boost profit.
@@lookingbehind6335 Traditional dining service is back, actually! That said, it's only available on the longer routes west of Chicago.
@@lookingbehind6335 Yet, the airlines have also cut back food service. Even domestic First Class has lost food service on shorter routes, post pandemic.
About the only way to travel and get decent food is to drive and use Yelp or Trip Advisor or keep track of restaurants shown on Food Network and Cooking Channel shows.
I used to ride the Metra train to commute from the suburbs to Chicago. After just a few months of using it I was so fed up since it felt like at least once a week there would be a delays up to an hour due to "freight interference". I would just sit there seething in rage wondering why there were constant freight issues -- but now I know why! I'm so jealous of other countries that have amazing passenger rail
Thanks for this video. I am a freight rail worker and rail carriers constant short sightedness has steadily made everything worse for the American economy, employees and customers. Their “metrics” that they’re concerned with are bullshit. Bleed the public, employees and economy dry for short sited profits for the shareholders.
A new Amtrak route opened in July linking Burlington and New York City for the first time in decades. The train leaves downtown Burlington daily at 10:00 and arrives at Penn Station around 4:30. It has frequent stops including one in Albany. Therefore it is quite easy to get from Burlington to Albany by way of train. The new line brings passenger rail service back to Burlington for the first time in 70 years.
That train actually takes anywhere from 7.5 to 8.5 hours. I'll pay the extra $100 and save myself 6 hours.
And how many people are using this train, and how much do taxpayers have to pay to subsidize it?
@@meanonsunday6995 How would you save 6 hours?
That's awesome!
@@iknklst How much do taxpayers have to pay to subsidize the military? or public schools? or the interstate system...
Amtrak currently has a lawsuit going against the freight companies for not honoring their agreement
As well they should. I wouldn’t budge an inch on the agreement. I’m sure the RR’s will/would try to buy their way out of the commitment. Don’t let them, stick to the agreement. Previous CEO’s have kicked the can down the road. Now it’s time to pay up.
I would like to see the freights restricted in length to the size of their sidings. If they want to run 3 mile trains, fine, but then they should have to build 3.5 mile sidings!
I use Amtrak on the old Pennsylvania "Main line," between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Prior to the 1970s, it was four track system, two tracks in each direction. Then it was reduced to three tracks, the third track used as a "Siding" for traffic in both directions. They want to improve part of the old "Main line," by installing "Sidings" instead of a whole new track. That should speed up passenger service but it would be better to return to having four whole length of the route tracks.
The biggest restriction is the Gallitizin Tunnels. The Gaitizin tunnels are actually three tunnels. The first one built in 1852 for the Pennsylvania railroad The Second built in 1854 by the then state owned "Portage Railway" which was part of the Pennsylvania Canal (The Portage railroad connected the two parts of the Canal, hauling goods and Canal boats over Allegheny Mountain). The Third tunnel was built in 1905 next to the original Gallitzin tunnel. After 2000 the Orginal Gallitzin tunnel was enlarged so two tracks could go through it with double height containers. The Portage Tunnel appears to have always be able to haul such tall rail cars, but it was only one track. Those tunnels are still in use. The 1905 Gallitzin tunnel is abandoned but can be rebuilt to take double height containers rail cars or just install new tracks but forbid the use of double height containers in that Tunnel.
I bring up the Gallitzin tunnels for in most cases it is the tunnels and bridges that need to be upgraded not only to take double height container rail cars but also to put in a full length track instead of sidings.
The US Government should do what Europe did with its rail system. In Europe the actual rail lines are private as they are in the US, but the tracks are owned and maintained by the Government. The Private rail companies pay rent for the use of the tracks, just like truckers pay fuel taxes to maintain US highways that such truckers depend on.
Congress can do this by taking over the tracksge in exchange for the Railroads not paying any rent for the use of the tracks over the next 20 years. The Federal Government could then double tracks those busy rail lines that are not double track which would make Passenger service faster but so would Freight service be faster. Competition between Railroads could be reinstated by permitting, after 20 years, anyone to use the tracks provided they meet minimum standards (i.e. no train slower then a "Normal Train").
Railroads competitors all use Government owned infrastructure. 1. Airplanes, Government owned airports and runways, runways built from funds from the Federal Government so that fighter jets can use those same runways.
2. Trucking and the fuel taxes, not only truckers pay but most other drivers.
3. Barges which rely on US Government locks and dams so rivers can be used year round, not just in time of spring floods.
My point is Railroads are the only means of transportation that does not depend on Government owned property to move goods along. That leads to efforts not to invest in such infrastructure investments for most such investments will not pay off for ten to twenty years, long after the current leaders of those railroad are gone.
This is the problem with most private enterprise companies, they are concerned more about profis this year not 20 years down the road. In much of the economy that is good way to make a successful business, but it is hard on anything that needs long term thinking to survive and infrastructure is one area where long term planning is important. Thus like public roads, railroad tracks should be owned and maintained by the Government. Yes I know the Government has a history of "Deferring maintenance" but when there is Political will those problems will be overcome if we are dealing with a Government project as oppose to a project by private enterprises.
A good example of this is the Interstate Highway system. The overall system is Government owned and maintained even as the actual building of the Interstate system and maintenance of the Interstate system was done by Private companies. No private company will invest in a project for the over 50 years the Interstate system took to build but when it came to build the individual sections of the system, private companies can do such short term projects with ease
Some people will not want to hear that the best solution to the problems of Amtrak is for the Federal Government to take over most of the "Class A" Railroads trackage. That will give the Federal Government the power it needs to not only improve passenger rail service in the US, but also improve long term freight service AND address the global warming by making rail a variable option to drive.
Amtrak meant to file the lawsuit a few decades ago, but they experienced delays.
The only problem is that Amtrak can afford to keep loosing money just like it always has since it was created. It has the American taxpayers to pay for it. Private railroads do not have that luxury. They have to make money to maintain their tracks/lines. If they don't, who do you think is going to pay for it, Amtrak? You people need to remember that the private railroads had to ask for permission from the government in order to end their failing, money loosing passenger service. Guess who thought it was a good idea to pick up a proven failed and money loosing operation? The government. Amtrak has NEVER even broken even since the day it started. Guess who pays for it? The tax payer.
The major underlying issue with this, along with almost every infrastructure problem in the US, harkens to a single issue. Lobbying. The fact that in the current year, people have not woken up to how undermining and damaging lobbyists are is baffling.
Love, love, love, love, love the NE corridor. I travel to NYC on weekends from DC all the time. Hop on a train Friday in the afternoon 10 min from departing, I just waltz right on no security, nothing. Work in the afternoon with free wifi in the spacious cafe car, and then I arrive in Midtown just under 4 hours later. No security, no waiting, no second trips or parking, just downtown to downtown service. It's incredible and the entire country should operate this way.
I recently listened to twelve hours of podcast talking about the history of Penn Station and it's absolutely insane in how many different ways the US rail industry sabotaged itself and its operations out of desperation to avoid nationalization.
Profit will destroy everything around it before surrendering even a penny to the filthy public.
Nationalizing the rail tracks would solve all the problems in this video.
But the industry will keep donating to campaigns to ensure no politicians ever try to do it.
What podcast?
WTYP? 😎
Nationalization was tryed in 1918. it failed big time
As an avid Train rider, I wholeheartedly agree. THANK YOU for taking up this issue and making a video about it. I have traveled more rail miles than everyone I know put together, and I can tell you that a part of this is the lack of easy and convenient routes, as well as the ABHORRENT delays from freight conflicts. Cheers!
As someone that used to ride along the Northeast Corridor in undergrad and was one management interview away from being a Railyard/line manager for Norfolk Southern, this was a deep video to watch. Thanks for the knowledge, Sam!!
In Brazil it is even worse. We only have freight railroads and the new projects are in this direction. We decommissioned passenger railroads decades ago and now most people have to travel by bus or plane. In the United States at least having a car is more accessible, here it is a privilege. My only hope is to move to a developed country with good infrastructure.
Japan and Switzerland are the 2 countries with the best maintained infrastructure.
I went from riding a Shinkansen in Japan to the Pacific coastliner from LA to San Luis Obispo in the span of about 18 hours... The contrast was mind blowing.
And that is really saying something, because the Surfliner is one of Amtrak's better-run trains.
@@RickyJr46 cuz Japan is a profit over everything retarded hell that is America
I rode Shin trains in '98. The contrast between that and Amtrak today is nuts.
There was the Texas High Speed Rail initiative, slated to use Shinkansen from Hokkaido. It got mired down in a 10 year environmental impact study which sapped the entire budget, which was the aim of the freight companies against it.
If you’re dead, how did you leave a comment?
How its done here in Czechia, where we have one of the biggest rail infrastructures: the government own all the infrastructure and leases it for transport companies to use, both for passenger and freight. Then each city/region signs a contract with multiple of these transportation companies, creating lines that the region wants to operate, this means that the company can operate even with small loss, because it will be subsidized from the money they get from the contract, but still have to operate efficiently, because the contract money isn’t unlimited
Yeah that's how we should have done it. We should nationalize all the rail lines and then leased back. But 4 private companies own most of it and they operate as virtual monopolies in the areas they cover.
@@VulcanLogicmore like two duopolies, one east and one west
V anglictine se rika "Czech Republic", Czechia je vymyslené Cechami slovo které rodili mluvci vubec ne pouzivaji.
@@VulcanLogic nationalizing is stealing, the rail companies built the lines and maintain them, they own them. Having that kind of power given to the government is why so many European countries have had fascist and communist dictatorships over the years
Took an Amtrak sleeper car from MT to Chicago then coach to MI in the winter quite a few years ago. Only had a couple freight train waits. Was only late at my destination by a couple hours. But having a place entirely to myself with a great view that was pretty comfortable was totally worth it.
In the UK we have the opposite problem! Passenger services have priority and freight trains come second - one reason why a very small percentage of freight is transported by rail here. We're currently building the HS2 dedicated high speed passenger line between the North and South of England, which the government hopes will free up the existing line for more freight.
Why not build dedicated passenger and freight rails?
@@leonpaelinckLimit good line space. Rails have a large requirement before you get into getting the land.
In 2013, a friend and I took a road/rail trip from Los Angeles to Vancouver, BC. I had to beg and wheedle to make even PART of that trip by rail, even though everything we wanted to stop and do along the way was north of San Francisco. She was convinced that driving was better. But once we settled into our coach seats in Los Angeles, she looked over at me and said, "This is COMFY!" And it was! We wandered the train, read, ate, made new friends, and enjoyed scenic narration of the Central Coast by an enthusiastic guide in the viewing lounge. Every train trip I've ever taken has been better than the best flight I've been on, and most have been better than driving. And considering how things went with the rental car we picked up in SF (long, very different story), I wish we could have stayed on the train.
One of the people I love most in the world lives in Texas. I could afford to visit twice a year if not for the risk of getting stuck behind a freight train for two days on that nightmarish NOLA-to-LA line.
Heck, I'm seeing someone right now who lives several hours away, and I'd be taking the train to every date if the track between here and there weren't closed due to erosion. (What was that about putting off maintenance?)
that's nice and all - but realistically honey how much are you really in this situation, versus the monotony of everyday travel and life?
Yo, COMFY: Joe Taxpayer here, saying I am glad you enjoyed your trip, but I am still waiting for a "Thank you" for the 60% of your ticket price that I paid.
I took a portion of the Empire Builder last month as my first Amtrak ever. I loved every part of it except the time. We even scheduled our flight at the end a few hours later because "it's Amtrak" and still barely made it to the gate in time for boarding. A delay here and there isn't bad, but hours and hours consistently repulses anybody who wants to remotely plan a schedule.
Plan and book your Amtrak journey to arrive at any required destinations a day early... So much of America has only a daily service, some don't even have that. Ask the folks living in Houston about their thrice weekly service... Keep in mind the Houston metro has around 7 million people, and its growing quickly... As long as the second largest populated state continues to have very poor Amtrak services, Amtrak will never grow...
@Karl with a K Customers aren't freight, so they are treated as low priority in spite of the law. They have inherently flawed scheduling but they can't be bothered to fix it.
@Karl with a K possibly true, but they don’t have much to do with late trains. That blame falls on freight dispatchers.
AmCrash is owned and operated by the Federal Government--Thank whatever God you pray to that you arrived at all.
Plus the trains are slow to begin with, and they stop A LOT. I'd love to see better mass transit, but we're too deep into a car culture. Cars are just too convenient... I can go anywhere I want, anytime I want, whenever I want. Busses and trains have schedules and routes _you_ have to follow. I have a friend who hates to drive who uses Amtrak between GSO(GRO) and RDU(RGH); he lives with it because he hates to drive.
For example, to get from my home to my shop (~9mi) takes about 15-20min by car _on my schedule,_ but by bus is ~2hr on three busses, or 1h36m leaving at 5:56am (wait for it) from the far side of a 9 lane highway a mile away. (the other starts from a mile away as well, but I don't have to cross any major roads, just residential streets to a shopping center.) To get from my home to my parents home is a 3h15m 200mi drive, but it's a walking pace of 9h52m via Amtrak... who will drop me off 30mi from my destination. (locally, I can use the bus) When I looked at Amtrak for a trip to Austin TX, well, at 73h52m ONE WAY. It's ~20hrs by car. (3-5hr by plane)
Minnesota is closer than ever to getting a higher speed line between Duluth and the Twin Cities. It'll be operated by MNDOT though, not Amtrak. Could help spark a resurgence of the old North Star line though. Chicago to Duluth, Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire, and the Twin Cities would be a great line connecting big colleges and population centers
My family often rides the Amtrack auto train from Virginia to Florida and since Covid they’ve made it more expensive, took out dinner and breakfast service and taken out complementary blankets and pillows. It’s been sad
A lot of whats said here makes perfect sense to me as a former Amtrack customer myself. I used to take the Portland - Seattle Route often, but when a 4 hour trip became a 12 hour one, I've never considered Amtrack an option.
Just get a car. 🤣
@@Labyrinth6000then you complain about all the traffic.
I rode the train from DC to Chicago to Sacramento in 2014, and the delays due to freight trains were awful. They even caused the crew to go over their work time limit & we had to wait for a backup crew to arrive before we could resume motion.
I've only used Amtrak once, to take the Empire Builder from Pasco, WA to Chicago in December of 2016. The trip was great, but of course I boarded 4 hours late, and got to Chicago nearly 12 hours late. We waited for freight trains time and again and while the slow rate of travel increased the social interaction and made the journey a big part of my Christmas vacation that year, it would not be a viable way to travel if time were at all important, especially not in the winter.
At this point, I am leaning towards nationalization of the entire rail network - passenger and freight - as well as national electrification (at least the mainlines). Yea, you can throw Conrail in my face, but I'm a Federal employee but I know the Federal workforce is capable of running the nation's railroads (great career opportunities for military, which is 90% logistics) and I believe a Congressionally unobstructed (like Amtrak is obstructed) national rail network could do a world of good in many ways including customer pricing, expedited movement of freight, greater intermodal integration to ease the need for roads, increase and on time performance of passenger service, technical development of equipment, and environmental-friendly adoptions.
Living in Chicago, I desperately want for Amtrak to become what it used to be again. The city used to be the rail hub of America and it would be so good to have that again. You can just feel the unused potential.
Whenever I visit Europe the rail system is just so incredible, it’s depressing how we don’t have that in the US, especially knowing we used to.
We used to, back when Henry Ford was building the model T before the Wright brothers invented powered flight
Living in "'Europe" ??
It is far cheaper and quicker to catch a plane to go across USA then in a train
USA is three times the size of whole Europe from Portugal to Poland
I feel that from Cincy too. Centrally located. Piss poor rail service.
I live in the same area and I don't want it.
It still is the rail hub of the North American continent.
This is actually really interesting
Hi osam
I thought it was only Half as Interesting
👍
Nice
Missed opportunity when conrail broke up. They owned all the rails in the east, when there were rails to absolutely everywhere, just at the end of productive passenger traffic to most places. The freight company and the passenger company, were one and the same.
Hello All, 1 /the reality is that Congress, in practice, wants Amtrak at minimal cost, and that is what it gets. Amtrak once handled LCL/Less than Car Load, Express, and Mail. Some LCL competed with the host railroad, whom, not unnaturally objected that Amtrak was syphoning off freight revenue. Express, once handled by REA/Railway Express Agency as an adjunct to Passenger service, as was US Mail. In the two latter cases bulk loading and fast schedules meant that traffic went to airlines. Although Amtrak did revive some of these services, they were restricted by what passenger services Congress authorised, or States subsidise, which frequently changes, so service provision became sort term. Eventually, the railroads (who have some influence on the appointment of Amtrak senior executives) then ensured that the next Congressional appointments opposed Amtrak non passenger services, and as a result, Amtrak LCL freight was shut down.
2/ Congress could mandate that train lengths be restricted to "average" crossing loop length ("average" would prevent the designation of one long crossing loop as a train length definer).As it is not unknown for existing crossing loops on a particular route to be of variable length, some of which are intended to serve Amtrak.
3/ the other issue is that the increasing frequency of long length train derailments is partially due to the difficulty of handling long heavy trains with variable individual wagon tonnage running over rail routes not specifically designed for long and heavy trains.(The Iron Ore trains in NW Australia, and coal trains on Central Queensland run on railways specifically designed for long, heavy, and equally loaded wagons, the dynamics of which are quite different to mixed freight trains common in the US). Hence the reason for the push to retrofit EP/ElectroPneumatic brake systems (similar to those used on Suburban Electric railways) which would ensure a smoother, and more even brake application over the length of the train. However, as most freight wagons in the US are now owned by non railroad entities (and managed by wagon hire companies), the chances of that being mandated by Congress is also rather low.
4 /For Amtrak to work as an effective passenger service provider, it really needs its own right of way. A lot of mothballed/abandoned rail routes are a feasible alternative, plus some existing rail corridors are actually quite wide, and were the result of 19th century land grants. Congress could ( but likely will not) mandate that some of this corridor vacant space be reallocated to Amtrak, and collectively, Amtrak would then have access to a lot of passenger rail only corridors , some of which could also be used for regional commuter operation.
5/ Some thoughts from Australia, regards to all.
As someone who manages over 1000 miles of mainline train traffic a day, you were very spot on with a lot of this. Only thing I will say is siding length is a problem but it's not THE problem. We can work around that, the issue is that every train is a race against time as the crews only work 12 hours, and we don't have enough people to call recrews and it's very frowned upon to do so, even if it was for efficiency. Also, I have never seen AMTRAK sit in a siding for an hour or more just for a basic train meet. If that happens there was some mechanical issue on a freight train. Standard practice would be you hold the freight train on the mainline (next to a siding they don't fit in), run Amtrak into the siding, and let the freight train depart. Maybe 20 minutes of delay for AMTRAK.
Sounds like a train dispatcher wrote this! Takes one to know one…
@@intrepidfox37 lol good call
The only time I ever took Amtrak, we sat in a siding for almost 4 hours, because the freight train was coming. As best I got from the employees, they were not given a time table on when the rain was coming, just that it was.
This route was only a 3.5 hour route. It took 8 hours.
@@leakingamps2050 can guarantee there was something wrong with the train then, cause a 4 hour meet doesn't happen
Sat in Utah 6 hours. Damn near missed a funeral for it. It was so miserable. The coal trains can eff it.
I had to go upstate in New York and was astonished to find how many of modern American railway stations are not in the heart of American towns, instead you needed a car or taxi to complete your journey. Crazy!
They used to be in the centers of towns, but they were shut down, sold off, and turned into restaurants, and the new stations were built on the outskirts to maximize parking space.
To be fair living next to or having a customer focused business next to a train station sucks. We have a local sports field next to a train line and every time a train passes by you can't carry on your conversation. It is best just to wait till it passes. The kids still think it is cool though, pretty impressive machines.
@@NONO-hz4voDepends on what type though
it's not much better here in NJ. NJT is pretty bus crazy and most of the old rail lines were sold to small companies or flat out abandoned/removed. The former CNJ mainline is now only a secondary that's been cut off near lakehurst naval air station when the line used to go from red bank to jersey city and beyond.
There was talk of bringing said line back for passenger service which would have been a major cash cow and a huge traffic reduction for all the NYC bound traffic on the parkway but 2 towns on the route planted their heads in the sand and went reee because the tracks go through the center of said town and the plan was shelved. we dont know when they will look at the plan again.
Now the closest station for any train to NYC in centeral or southern jersey is either the coast line which only gets to bayhead along the shore and the line to Trenton.
@@NONO-hz4vo which means the US uses very old trains.
Japanese cities were built around the main railway station, and densified all lands around it. And yet there are no complaints regarding noise.
I've been bincheign some of your videos today, and it's insane how much information you are able to tell in a 20 minute spawn. Each video feels like it's an hour long. I love it, keep up the good work!
They just widened I-25 to three lanes on each side from Monument Colorado to Lone Tree Colorado. They constantly talk about running a passenger train on the front range but that is all they do. So the State came up with a bus service called the Bustang to handle the passenger traffic and people use the heck out of it.
Absolutely incredible mini-doc! I've had the joy (yes, an actual joy) of travelling by AmTrak from upstate New York to NYC to DC to southern Virginia. It was so fun and unique. I enjoyed being able to sit and hang out with all of my friends and arrive refreshed and relaxed. I'm a huge fan of travelling by rail and I'd love to see rail travel grow and expand and become normal!
Totally agree. I would LOVE train from NY to Chicago for an exact similar overnight trip. But nope. Won't ever happen
@@cheetah219 There is a NYC- Chicago route now, I ride it all the time. Called the Lake Shore Limited. I guess the "Limited" part refers to its on-time performance.
The ride from Albany to NYC is drop-dead gorgeous. I take it all the time to visit family in NYC
Tell these MF’s to turn a profit so those ticket prices can go down, jeez
Fantastic video that rectified older Amtrak videos that you've made, this is a great overview of a lot of the issues that the US faces, especially with its passenger services. I was alittle disappointed that you left the video opened ended (I know, that's your thing), but there's a clear solution to this problem that literally every other country in the world has turned too; which is government ownership of railroad infrastructure or nationalization. You mentioned that the airports and highways are government owned, well shouldn't the railroads also be? Why should the entire countries' logistics system be at the mercy of a few railroad CEO's?
Yes! Thank you! Smart answer, I wrote it in another comment but less on point!
Japan's railroad are privately owned and they are the best railways in the world.
Havent watched the video yet, but if Alan Fisher approves, it must be a good video
I assume after doing jet lag in Europe and then trying to do it in the US. The Wendover team realized that maybe trains could work in more of America than the NEC
Because Japan has societal standards, we in the US don't.
Walk through Newark Penn...and nobody can disagree with me.
I’m from Pueblo, CO, and I was so happy to see us on there. I’m glad they just asked COS to pick a location for a station. :)
Fabulous, thank you! I love the after-and-before transition at the very end.
My dad was an engineer for Northern Pacific/ Burlington Northern/BNSF starting in 1952. I worked for BN as track maintenance for eight years in Wyoming. I have seen and experienced firsthand the exact things you talked about. In order to help the rail situation, the freight companies need to establish a double track system for most of their track miles. Second, and more expensive, there needs to be a passenger rail network excluding freight service, unless passenger trains could handle a limited amount of freight, not to exceed the number of passenger cars, between hubs and small communities. Every route needs at least two trains each direction each day, and easy surface transportation from the stations to local destinations. (Car rental, bicycle rents or commuter buses).
I recall reading that property taxes for the railroads is dictated by how many sets of rails they have. Considering the contents of this video, you know that these greedy mother fuckers are not going to be wanting to give the government more money in taxes.
Who’s paying for all this bullshit? I don’t even want to pay for the Ukrainian war not our problem. Stupid stupid American people.
Pushing down $80,000 electric vehicles that don’t even charge in cold environments!
Very slow transportation and very costly makes no sense nor should we subsidize a wasted situation like that. Get the trucks off the highway put them on the rail, cars and scrap that Amtrak bullshit that subsidize like the post office.
@@Jacarroll417 You are as right as rain. There so many "if only" pieces to a successful rail system that there is very little hope of getting anything fixed. Too many people, including myself, complain the government isn't doing enough to fix the roads, while at the same time bitching about the taxes we have to pay for infrastructure repairs. But if I buy the material and fill in the pot holes in front of my house, I will be looking at a lawsuit and fines for unauthorized repairs to a public right of way. It's always something.
@Karl with a K Please don't post the same nonsense in multiple threads. It just makes you look silly.
Many countries have a shared network for local passenger and freight trains. France, Germany, Japan, just to name a few of the big ones. They also have at least two tracks on the majority of the backbone. E.g. it works very well if the congestion isn't too high and the distance between railway switches corresponds both to the length of the trains as well as the distance between stations. To connect smaller communities, a single track is fine if they are also not a freight hub.
The thing that drives me insane about Amtrak when it comes to long distance travel is the cost and time. If I travel from the Mid-Atlantic up to my family around Boston, it costs me as much if not more than a plane ticket, while taking the same amount of time it would for me to drive with minimal traffic. I gain nothing traveling by train when compared to air.
Exactly. Amtrak is inefficient
And at least, driving your car, you have transportation once you're at your destination.
Highways receive BILLIONS in tax payer funding and subsidies, GM received $11 from the federal government to avoid bankruptcy (they still went bankrupt, thanks Obama) airlines are also heavily subsidized and received $50 billion in federal bailouts in 2020 (thanks Trump)
If the transportation administration actually cared they could invest half of what we spend on cars and airline into passenger rail and the system would be massively better, instead we get a TWO TRILLION DOLLAR "Infrastructure" bill and Amtrak gets $66 billion as an after thought to last them for the next 10-20 years?
I prefer it mainly because i hate going through security. The complete indignity of it isn't there on trains. Much less stressful.
@@meganegan5992 Avoiding security isn't a great advantage for those who desire either convenient times or airline speed. Something a daily train at 3 AM will never do no matter the speed of the train... Ask the folks living in Memphis, Little Rock, Wichita, Omaha, Spokane, Salt Lake City,, and Phoenix. Cleveland comes to mind too, but alas Cleveland has two daily trains in the wee hours of the morning... The trains soldier on during the night with their time schedules geared for the huge metros on the east and west coast as well as Chicago terminus stations... None of those interior cities are very small either...
Finally got around to watching this last night. One issue they mentioned briefly is the rail freight industry's shortsightedness in regards to track maintenance. I'd wager that those longer and heavier trains they are so reliant on actually increases the maintenance requirements, which is going to lead to more down time for repairs, and further delays. In short, they need to break the cycle before it becomes self-perpetuating. It's a shame because I would passenger rail offers so much for those with the time to use it.
Man, I would SO LOVE to see this dream come to fruition.....I'm even considering taking a trip to Norway (in about 10 years...) just to enjoy a breathtaking train ride. To be able to hop a train a leave the driving to others would be such a load off. To be able to sit and actually read a real book instead of listening to it. To be able to work or play a game or whatever while you relax on the way. To not be angry with traffic and bring it into the office..... I sure see a lot of upsides to rail travel..... as long as it's affordable to the masses. But, I'm 60. I will probably never see this happen....
You did a great job on this video! Thanks for sharing and the work involved to make it!
If you want a bigger shocking scandal, check out the history of passenger rail in Canada, starting with the Pacific Survey (which resulted in the Second Riel Rebellion a decade later), John A. MacDonald and his scandals leading up to the creation of the CPR, and the sad lack of rail service we have now. Pierre Berton wrote an excellent two part series on it.
CN should be re-nationalized as well.
and VIA Rail here is about as sad-sack as Amtrak is as well
I think Canada's passenger rail is still better than the US' currently?
@@ianhomerpura8937 I really don't understand why we lost any of our crown corps. Why move the onus of government revenue completely to taxes?
We have however become the world leaders in high speed rail… study!
Hit the nail on the head man! I have used Amtrak multiple times, giving it multiple chances but with a 6hr trip becoming a 9hr and once even a 12hr trip, I became solidified in no longer using Amtrak. My time is worth more than the cost difference.
I drive everywhere. I don't fly. If they had the autotrain available everywhere, I could theoretically use it, provided my work truck would fit. I couldn't fly even if I wanted to, because I have a truck full of tools. You can't take your truck on a plane. But I'd gladly take it on a train. It would save me hours of driving. It would save on motels too. Try driving from the DC area to Nashville and back, see how many hours it takes. (Google says 11 hours each way, but it took me closer to 15.) Wouldn't it be better to just load your truck on a train and then relax?
Getting there is as much fun as being there.
If I wasn't eating up precious vacation time or forcing my family to sit at a train station for hours on end, I would agree.
@@arnoldthompson481 Not if you're traveling on business. A 72-hour round trip for a couple of days of business is just ridiculous. Heck, I used to take the redeye flight back home because I didn't want to spend another day at my destination.l
@@CrazyBear65 What you mean you cant load your truck onto a plane? Of course all personal items must be removed. Im sure that includes any tools that are on the truck. And it would be very expensive but it can be done.
Growing up in the late sixties and early seventies, I watched the Santa Fe passenger trains routinely run at speeds around one hundred mph, and freight trains around seventy mph. When Amtrak came in, they started slowing down. Years later, i found out from a gentleman who worked for the Santa Fe that they had to down grade the quality of their lines to match the lines back east.
So the solutions I see are as follows:
1. Give passenger rail preference over freight rail, whether through more legislation or by allowing private passenger rail companies to bargain for it with railroads.
2. Build new rail lines specifically for passenger rail, owned by (preferably private but Amtrak is ok) passenger rail companies.
3. Invest (as gov't or a private corp.) in the passenger equivalent of trucking: intercity bus.
2 might be best, and would allow for high-speed rail to become a possibility, but for that it would likely require expensive and potentially controversial land acquisition. but 3 is easiest, especially for an average private citizen, and would be a viable alternative. 1 would require either the creation of a new corporation (same as private versions of 2 and 3) or an act of Congress, and it's hard to say which is least likely; but if it can be done, that'd be great too.
I took the train from Minnesota to North Dakota in 2015 because I had the time, but we got stuck yielding to all the oil trains, was 8 hours delayed. * I actually thought the law was that Amtrak had to yield, from this single experience, didn't know it was supposed to be otherwise.
If the law was enforced, it is still cheaper to pay the fine than to stop the freight.
@@scotcoon1186 Lol.
EDIT: I guess we need to learn how to improve the lines to be more like Germany seeing as they have less delay times because the trains can go much faster.
@@KRYMauL Germany also has tracks owned by the government, with a length limit for freight trains to ensure sidings actually work. I believe longer trains can be run with special permits, but those are run at night to avoid impacting passenger service.
@@scotcoon1186 i think it’s also impractical. How is one supposed to yield on train tracks? At the station, it’s full, pull over where? It would just make a traffic nightmare, more accidents and start and stopping slows everyone down.
If it makes anyone feel better, we also have this problem in Sweden. Some stupid putt putt cargo train always in front of our X2000 blitzer (same fast train Amtrak has on the east coast).
Solution is to build a extra track prioritized for passenger trains. But govt. is what it is.
@@Lolwutfordawin Then why are there trains delayed so much?
One thing I think people forget today is that the railroads of the late 19th century were the way we view companies like Google and Apple today. Yes, they provide a meaningful service we need, but they're also incredibly greedy, bloated, etc.
At the time that the US highway system was put in, I don't think it's hard to imagine how a lot of Americans viewed it as independence from big companies.
That view was actually just based on what was essentially propaganda from the automotive industry. NotJustBikes just released an excellent video on the topic a couple days ago.
@@michaelimbesi2314... I'm going to be honest, I think that saying "it was all propaganda" is rather flippant...
The railroads did _horrible_ things in the 19th century. If you look at the history of labor strikes a number involve railroads. There are a bunch of political cartoons about fears of the railroads having too much power, and a plethora of personal accounts from people at the time.
I wouldn't be surprised if the auto companies leveraged this to their advantage, but they did not invent the idea of resentment towards the railroad companies.
@@michaelimbesi2314 The propaganda wouldn't have been effective if the trains weren't awful.
@@WasatchWind The correct response to all that is to just nationalize the railroads like every other country did during that time period.
@@whoisthatkidd2212
Or at the very least, the tracks. Infrastructure is a public good, and should be under the supervision of a government agency. Whether tasks such as expansion and maintenance be carried out by the agency itself or by a contractor is a different matter. It is already the case with the highway system, why shouldn't it be the case for rails
Another problem is the stations. When a plane is late and you miss a connection, you are "stranded" in a secure well-lit well-staffed building with bathrooms and vending machines, surrounded by hotels and rental cars that operate 24x7. When you arrive at a train station it may be closed, in some places even if the train is on time. And those other amenities are harder to get as well. If trains went to airports or at least had a shuttle and the airports were required to treat train passengers like air travelers it would help a lot.
Another fantastic video with great research. As a European living in the US, I love my car, because I'm a car enthusiast. But the fact that you have to depend only on a car to dependable get anywhere and don't live in a major city is criminal.
Least of which a huge benefit of public transit is ability to go on a night on the town and return home safely without expensive Uber or having a DD made it that much more fun.
Correct, people need to remember the difference. Cars are fine. Car dependency is NOT, like at all.
@@MustraOrdo Exactly. I love cars, but I also love trains, and there should be more viable options. I lived for 11 years without owning a car and it was great. (In a northeast city, the only place in the country where it's possible at all.)
Glad you have this opinion. I dislike the polarization of the cars Vs transit debate. People should have options to use either but shouldn’t be required to own a car. I’m also a car enthusiast and because cars are seen as a necessity here, enthusiast options are produced less and less and instead companies pump out boring commuters all the time.
Took the train from Birmingham to New Orleans for the first time last week and it was wonderful. Tickets were 20 bucks, trains were clean, staff was wonderful and to top it off, we departed and arrived early.
How is "early departure " wonderful? The train should departure on time, so you do not miss it
@@anthonybanderas9930 maybe he just forgot a comma ("we departed[,] and arrived early") or didn't bother to remark about the on-time departure. Maybe it left 10 seconds early? But I can definitely see how maybe it implies he departed early. But it is not unambiguous because he never wrote the phrase "early departure", you did.
@@kms1.62 he wrote departed and arrived early, thus early applies both to departed and arrived
@@anthonybanderas9930 I refer you to the previous lengthy explanation of how the phrase is ambiguous without proper punctuation and will reprint the corrected full sentence:
"Tickets were 20 bucks, trains were clean, [the] staff was wonderful[,] and to top it off, we departed[,] and arrived early."
The sentence you just wrote is also a bit ambiguous due to punctuation ironically or not.
Maybe you meant :
"[He wrote ["]departed and arrived[”] early, thus early applies both to departed and arrived[.]
I could be a pedantic guy and say that you think he wrote something earlier than expected, but I understand what you surely do mean and what he probably meant despite the ambiguity of both of your writing.
i also dont mind ditching the silly little dots n squiggles but rekugnize that when I do things can become ambiguous just suggesting give the guy the benefit of the doubtt but then again who knows maybe the train did leave early and someone missed it but that is ambiguity when you just don't know for sure.
@@anthonybanderas9930 And also, sometimes train stops are indeed scheduled to arrive or depart at a certain time but are warned in the timetable and upon, ticketing that the train may depart or ar arrive early. These planned flexible times are particularly common towards the ends of long-distance routes but are overall not the norm. But in general of course you are correct that trains shouldn't depart earlier than scheduled.
I remember being on train #42 from PGH to NYC, we had to wait outside of Harrisburg for 3 hours to let freight have priority due to track work in the area.
🎶 "I been working on the railroad..." 😂😂
We have a very similar problem in Canada. Private companies own the rails and freight, the federal government runs passenger rail. Except passengers doesn’t get priority over freight. I took a train from Quebec City to Halifax and it took 23 hours. It shouldn’t take that long, it’s a 10 hour drive. Nationalise the rails
We do not leave trucking companies to build the roads, why do we leave train companies to build the rails
@@not-askaven2990 I like that point! No one I have heard talk on the 'america's trains suck' subject has ever mentioned just building rail and charging the freight / passenger services to use it.
I guess getting the land to put the rail on is the biggest challenge. Look at CHSR, so many of their problems come down to where to lay the track from what I understand. I think a similar issue impacted Florida's Brightline too.
You can only do that if you want to nationalize freight lines as well. Which would raise the cost of transporting freight, which would lead more customers to switch to diesel trucks, which travel on the........ road.
In the UK passenger inter-city trains seem to be prioritised reasonably well, problem is there is only so much room on the tracks. Fast inter-city trains can't run as close to other services as slower services like local trains and freight. On the West Coast Main Line if one train breaks down it causes a horrible cascade effect, as the schedule is already so finely balances. HS2 will solve this problem by moving the faster services onto different tracks, releasing massive capacity on the existing tracks. It'll be a huge boon to the reliability and capacity of train services... but the government have barely mentioned these advantages so we have all these people crowing "who needs to get from Birmingham to London faster"?
@@josejopez Texas has been trying to build a bullet train from Houston to Dallas and it is facing massive pushback there where everyone is demonizing it.
As someone who took Amtrak from northern California to central California recently, I can say that it is not only much cheaper but also much nicer than a plane ride. I hope Amtrak succeeds more!
I did something similar from the Bay Area to Salt Lake City. It was nice heading out, but the delays just were terrible, arriving into Salt Lake 3 hours late in the middle of the night, and the train back arriving 5 hours late at 4am. This video really helped me know why, and has me frustrated that we could have such a better service than we do.
The "San Joaquins" and "Capitol Corridor" services in NorCal have been a great success. However, they run on freight rails, not on their own. In Germany and much of Europe, there exist parallel tracks along major routes: one pair for passenger, one pair for freight. That's what is needed here. It should be less expensive than Amtrak building all-new lines requiring wholesale real estate purchases (if possible), such as what is happening with the new High-Speed Rail project in California. That effort has been a huge disaster -- it will probably never be completed in its envisaged form.
I take Dallas to Austin on the regular and even though Greyhound is faster, the comfort of Amtrak is well worth it especially when prices are comparable.
As an European I have to say it's often faster too. People tend to only focus on the amount of time it takes to fly (which is obiously very short), but forget the amount of time it takes to get to the airport and the boarding of the plane.
Amtrak has never made a profit, and NEVER even came close to a profit.
On average it's cost the taxpayers over a billion dollars a year.
And now they need 10's of billions of dollars in new trains......
Guess who is paying for them?
NOT the people riding the trains.
The people riding the trains don't pay enough for their tickets to even cover the cost of running the company......
That's a hell of a definition of success.
Wendover productions does a great job of taking topics no one thinks about and explains them very well, in a way the average person can understand
It would be great to give that law some teeth and make the freight company pay a fine to the passenger company every time there is a violation. A big fine.
I live in a medium sized town in India, one of the state companies that worked on power transformer has its own rail line connection and it still works to this day, can you imagine that? A relatively small company in a medium sized town having its own rail line go right down to its lands.
Trust me, if India which has a corrupt government can have rail network with fantastic coverage, America who spends so much on more infrastructure can have it better. They just have to shift some laws around and actually enforce them.
India's rail is a magical and frightening system.
America isn't dense enough for passenger rail to make sense, hence why we have airports and use trains for freight instead.
@@Sparta955 The USA as a whole might not be (and even that's contentious - compare with Russia, for example), but large parts of it are, like the East Coast and a big chunk of the West Coast.
The only reason public transportation is so severely lacking in the US is government and public will.
@@hititwithit Amtrak runs in the Northeast, and the West coast is nonviable - it is extremely mountainous and the vast majority of the population lives in three major cities with little in between. It's far easier to just fly over it all. Public infrastructure isn't lacking in the USA, we have airports all over the place and roads all over the place, we just prioritized what was sustainable.
@@Sparta955 That is just stupid - airports require you to arrive at least 2-3h before start of the plane. Same here in Europe and that is lost and stressful time. But with a train in Europe you can arrive a minute before the train leaves the station and you can work on the train, because it has internet etc. You don't have to switch of your phone or laptop because of some danger and there is not really a restriction on weight and amount etc. And a highspeed train like TGV or ICE is only marginally slower than an airplane with the correct tracks. And adding to that you can use a sleeper train, enter it in the evening and arrive the next morning after a peaceful sleep without any stress and can go to work. Connecting major US cities with high speed tracks would be helpful and be more environmental friendly. An additional problem in the US is that most existing tracks are only single tracks and passing trains have to use a passing track and wait there until the passing train has passed. In case of freight trains that can take a long time because of the length and how slow they are. With a track for every direction and track switches a faster train could pass slower trains without problems and without any need to wait for another train. There is no need for a dense population to have trains. You only need to have attractive connections with attractive prices.
For example Berlin- Munich by car is about 7h30min (430mi) and 100$ gas. The same journey with a train is 4h50min and starts at 18$ for the ticket. Average is about 37$ and the highest is about 70$. The journey with a plane is faster (70min), but you have to add check-in of 2h before start. ( In Europe you can add time for the journey to an airport, because nearly every city has a small train station.) Add to that that the cheapest ticket is 145$, but average is 250$. Train is much more attractive. And there is another option for vacation with your car. There are car transport trains. You can buy a ticket for your car, sit in the train and relax while you and your car are transported to your target. In Europe for example you can board the train with your car in Germany and over night you are in Spain and can explore Spain without any stress in your own car.
And if you think of the problems with electric cars and how far you can go with one charge a transport by train for longer journeys would look attractive.
We used to have so many short lines in Western PA. Passenger rail went everywhere, even the small towns! Now there's barely a railroad bed or derelict bridge. Long trains through our towns that slow down our crossings and bring literally no benefit for the towns they pass through.
Sounds like how it is here in central PA too!
I took the Pennsylvanian line that goes between Pittsburgh and NYC and was surprised how many smaller stops there were along the line! Or at least, how many there had once been. I saw several buildings beside the tracks that looked like abandoned stations and I wondered if they used to serve smaller towns that have no rail service today.
My Grandma worked in the dispatch office for the Union Railroad. Her brothers worked for the B&O. My parents both took the train from Monessen to Pittsburgh every day for college after WW2. I rode the PATtrain in the 70s. Lots of rails have been ripped up in favor of yuppy bicycle trails, and that's very sad. I still have family living in the Mon valley today. I live several states away from there now.
@@CrazyBear65 Do people even need to rip up rails for bike trails? Bikes are cool, but I think roads are the bigger issue than trains.
When I was young, my family had a family reunion in Michigan and we took Amtrak to travel from California. We got delayed on the tracks multiple times one so bad we sat on the car for almost 3 hours waiting for freight to pass us(to young to remember full details on the pass) we ended up so delayed we got a full 24 hour layover in Chicago. Both ways we had major delays and took extra days to get home it was rough. Beautiful trip wouldn’t change anything besides getting a sleeper. Still would love to experience that trip again this time with my kids.
did you get the numbers of the passing locomotives?- you could then report them for drug use
THIS!!!! So much this hits the nail on the head. I’ve grown up in Denver and went to school in Pueblo, having a rail service along the front range would have been so nice. I’m currently looking at taking the train from Denver to Michigan because flying has just gotten so inconvenient but definitely concerned at the on time stat you showed for the Zephyr which I’d have to take to Chicago. Fingers crossed that the powers that be finally make passenger rail travel more of a priority soon, isn’t that Amtrak Joe’s bread and butter??? If anyone loves passenger trains more than that man I haven’t met them. 😂
One thing that should be as well mentioned - if you want mass transit of people, you need to connect with that as well public transportation within the city. If you get to downtown, but you have no way to get elsewhere, it sucks.
So yeah, there are connected problems.
true, but even with airports, for example, most are outside of town so people are usually picked up buy a friend or relative, snag an uber, or hail a cab. so thankfully it shouldn't be as big of a problem as it seems. I completely agree, though, that we need better transit.
Unfortunately in the 1970s, Amtrak couldn't afford to upkeep the gorgeous downtown stations or wanted to be closer to growing suburbs so they build these hideous 70s shit boxes. They're affectionately called "Amshacks".
I always assumed the law was that freight had priority since that's how it always plays out
And corrupt officials get bribed to keep it that way. You imprison a few ceos and a few politicians for that corruption and everybody cries about propriety but no one gives a shit about the paltry civil penalties and the status quo continues.
It kind of is, and they own the rails as well.
@@JL-sm6cg the law isnt freight priority is the whole gd point and they have just been violating it and getting away with it. dont cover for the criminals. Yes they own the rails but mostly cause they have allowed monopolies to conglomerate rather then enforcing anti trust laws. The answer is corruption corruption and more corruption.
so JL dont cover for them by framing the situation that way.
Realizing who owns one of the largest freight companies it's no surprise.
@@JL-sm6cg that's the reality, but definitely not the law.
There’s only two tracks coming out of Penn into NJ on the NEC with a major “S” curve coming into Elizabeth Station. There’s so many obstacles for Amtrak on the NEC, more tracks are needed.
I have an Amtrak track running right through my one traffic light town in upstate New York. If the train stopped there I could walk to the station from my house, and commute to New York City in the morning, and back home at night. But, I guess it's just not profitable enough. So I have to drive 40 miles to Albany to catch the morning train. But honestly, the corridor from Albany to New York City runs trains every hour and they are on time virtually all the time.
Love the Wendover opinion pieces. With your extensive experiencing documenting the world of civilian logistics, you're in a unique position to give serious opinions on it.
Although I wish there was a separate branding or made it more clear. Kurzgesagt for the most part makes a greater difference between their editorial sections and their more fact based ones.
@@Marylandbrony People ought to learn that the difference between facts and opinions is a matter of wording and not tone. I don't at all mind that there is not a separate brand for opinions, since this channel is not explicitly branded as scientific or as a news channel, nor are those themes apparent in the content. More than anything, Wendover is a documentary channel, and it is not antithetical to a documentary about having an editorial point of view. Kurzgesagt is almost exclusively a channel for science videos, so it is wise for them to make clear when they are editorializing.
On the subject of Kurzgesagt, I do wish they'd animate more short stories like The Egg. I doubt they ever would, but I would LOVE to see a Kurzgesagt-style video for Wikihistory.
@@jackal2568 I suppose that's wise, but education has its limits as well. There is no substitute for experience.
@@jackal2568 But he's saying basically the same things experts are saying.
@@jackal2568 Short minded. Just because someone has a degree doens't mean that he is an expert. But if you want to watch really good videos of an expert (city planing) watch @NotJustBikes
There is some discussion about restarting long-lost rail service from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. If the LA-LV service is also launched, it could be the de facto restoration of the old Los Angeles and Salt Lake City railway. It's interesting that LV was founded in large part as a stopover point and maintenance depot along the LA/SLC line, but the city's modern appeal as a destination from both directions could be the factor that brings rail service back.
I think that there is also potential for a route to the north from SLC, through Logan and Pocatello to Idaho Falls and maybe to Rexburg. That route also existed once upon a time, with service all the way to West Yellowstone, MT taking tourists to YNP.
Does SLC WANT people to flee to Las Vegas to spend money? Probably not. It is sad though as moderate distance travel on train can compete against aircraft.... No "I need my car" stuff when you'd travel via aircraft to these places most of the time anyway. I just don't see it happening.
I think you mean through Ogden, not through Logan
@@gideonparry5684 I actually meant both Ogden and Logan. I emphasized Logan to make clear that I think it should run through Cache Valley and US-91 rather than following I-15. And Ogden is already connected in the existing FrontRunner service, so I was emphasizing the new connections.
@@brycechristensen2296 I kind of Wonder how a train would do through Sardine Canyon from Brigam City to Wellsville, but I would definitely take it if it existed
@@gideonparry5684 The existing freight tracks avoid Sardine Canyon and run through Honeyville/Tremonton area and along the Bear River into Cache Valley. I assume a passenger train would follow the same route. It's a bit longer, but not too much.
I used to take the Metroliner from Metropark to DC twice a month. I loved taking the train. It was much easier than flying or driving. Although I still travel for business but you’re right it’s too slow and expensive. I hope for the day when this changes.
I live 60 miles from New Orleans, where there is a major Amtrak Station. We have an Amtrak passenger station in our town. In just 60 miles, the train is usually more than an hour behind schedule.
We were stuck getting out of Grand Central Station by a bridge that opened for boat traffic, but then got stuck open and took about 40 minutes to finally close. They were about to back us up to Manhattan when we finally got moving. Even with all of that, I love riding the train.