death toll has increased
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Darwin. I remember guys doing this 50 years ago.
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This will be the second international route to resume, after the Toronto train which resumed last month. No timeline yet for the Montreal train resumption.
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The Seattle/Vancouver train has beautiful scenery. Do it if you’re in the area and not very expensive.
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Bad news for upstate
Good news for Vermont
Good news for Missouri
Unrealistic expectations for Atlanta
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Whoever wrote this is incredibly anti-Amtrak.
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If anything Amtraks scope needs to be increased.
Either give them the money to buy out the rail lines. Or, give them the money to build new rail lines.
It would probably be better to just build new ones so as to keep the freight traffic at the same time, while getting completely new, electrified, high speed capable lines.
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The author of this ‘article’ claims "passenger rail enthusiasts often complain that freight trains “get in the way” of passenger trains and that it slows Amtrak service, but the reality is that Amtrak trains receive priority over freight trains and travel much faster than freight trains."
Amtrak trains are often delayed because freight trains have priority. Clearly, the author of this garbage never bothered to do research because even Amtrak themselves knows freight trains are a major delay cause.
Waiting for freight trains is the largest cause of delay to passengers. Freight train interference — a dispatching decision made by a freight railroad to delay an Amtrak passenger train so that their freight trains can operate first — caused 700,000 minutes of delay in 2020 .
(Source)
More service and modern equipment should also be major priorities. The Amfleet coaches are over 30 years old and the Superliner fleet is also getting up there. There are also many small towns that rely on amtrak service as well, so frequent service can benefit these communities.
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- The author is objectively wrong.
- Yes. They do travel faster than freight trains. That’s not an accomplishment, nor is it hard to do.
They are still very slow by most standards of passenger rail.
Also I think Amtrak is upgrading most of their fleet, which is great for amenities and the like, but doesn’t mean much for speeds because that’s limited by the track and scheduling right now.
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Amtrak does have preference over freight trains. At least that’s what the law says. But the law is not enforced. And that’s why the host railroads prioritize their own freight.
So the way it stands is as follows:
De jure - passenger trains have priority
De facto - freight trains have priority
Amtrak has a fact sheet that explains this:
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Corporate shill -
Jimmy Kemp is the President of the Jack Kemp Foundation which he established in 2009.
Mr. Kemp co-founded and is the Managing Partner of Kemp Partners, a strategic consulting firm based in Washington DC. Established in 2002, Kemp Partners provides government relations and corporate affairs services to a diverse clientele. Mr. Kemp has represented Fortune 500 companies as well as burgeoning firms before Congress, the White House and several federal agencies.
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My first guess upon seeing the title of the article was, “This is basically sponsored content written by a General Motors executive.”
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Yes, the Cato Institute used to publish these once or twice every year. It’s always the same right-wing “libertarian-anarchist” nonsense:
- 2020: “Amtrak’s Big Lie”: https://www.cato.org/commentary/amtraks-big-lie
- 2020: “Amtrak Continues to Lie”: https://www.cato.org/blog/amtrak-continues-lie
- 2021: “Amtrak’s Money-Losing Vision”: https://www.cato.org/blog/amtraks-money-losing-vision
- 2022: “Amtrak Slower than Buses on Many Routes”: https://www.cato.org/blog/amtrak-slower-buses-many-routes
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