The One Tiny Law That Keeps Amtrak Terrible

If the political and popular will existed to have an efficient, smart, plentiful, comfortable, low-cost passenger rail network we would have one. Isn't it time we get this?

Until people start mattering more than profits and giant corps including freight rail corps are held accountable this just won't change.

It won't. Freight rail can get away with everything including murder in this country. Just ask East Palestine, although they're by far the first.

Sad times. This is the Gilded Age Number Two we're in.

What an eyeopener this was !! After watching all the freight hopping and Amtrak passenger videos that seem so upbeat, this video puts reality back in place. Now when I watch those other videos I will do so with a jaundiced eye.

🎶 "I been working on the railroad..." 😂😂

I took Amtrak for the first time over the 2023 holidays, to visit family. On the way there, we had to stop on a bypass track to let a freight train pass. On my return trip, my first train broke down at the station and the replacement was stuck behind a broken-down freight train. Once it finally arrived and we were on our way, it had to stop again, because the same freight train had broken down again.

Not to mention the station master at my second-to-last stop put me on the wrong bus.

But this completely bysteps the fact that freight trains are worth it because moving tons upon tons of consumer goods across a landmass bigger than Europe is worth it. Moving thousands upon thousands of people the same distance? A money pit that has no financial gain.

There isn't any in-between. Either the government puts up the money for new civilian rail lines and expects to lose constant amount forever more, or it doesn't. That's it.

Another thing that everyone should know is that the US government is not allowed to make a profit by federal law, so anything ran by the government can't make a profit take a look at Conrail for years it was a Disaster, than new people took over and started to make a profit the government had to sale it.

You got one of the ɓig cooperation name wrong it's not C&O it is CSX

This is “THE BEST” analysis of the American situation I have ever heard!!!

FREIGHT GOES FIRST.... Fact.. want more passenger speed, Build NEW welded light high speed rail Next to the freight rails. This is happening in places, BUT its expensive and materials have to be paid up front. Keep in mind Many of these lines have Ancient right of ways that may not be wide enough for double plus lines.

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. 😂

I have ridden the Cardinal a few times. Every time, Amtrak had to wait on a freight train in its way. In one case, it was over 2 hours - and we were less than an hour from arriving in Chicago. Talk about frustrating. I truly hope it can be improved with more Amtrak routes added as I really like riding in a Roomette and kicking my feet up.

Nationalize the railroads

It`s more than one law. One is supply and demand. The time schedules. The costs.What happens when they go on strike? Those are a few, if not laws,drawbacks to today`s train travel.
Kicking around Europe or Japan and China is fun when you are on vacation but if you did it every day it would be tedious. Being on a train with a bunch of COVID riddled people would be terrible.

If they refurbish the passenger cars to better suit today's need, they might be able to coax the younger population to using them.
I could imagine a 2 hour commute where you could work in a mobile office with good internet access, people could do half they day working whilst commuting, do a 4 hour shift in the office and finish their work whilst commuting home. Would work out to be the best of working from home and site work. And as a bonus you wouldn't lose you day commuting.

Freight is what keeps railroads in business. Passenger service was always, and will continue to be a drain on railroad revenue. Passenger service will never be profitable so long as it remains non-smoking, and people are trapped onboard for two or three days. Only able to smoke during station stops, but only if the crew lets them know they can step off and huff a quick cigarette. My son and daughter-in-law rode the Texas Eagle and the crew finally told them when they stopped in Kansas ,that they could have gotten off at every stop and smoke. But the crew didn't want to round up the passengers.

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.

Also Airlines when Jets were invented took over passenger transportation from the Rail.

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.

Seize the railroads as a national security asset and charge freight companies for their usage. Problem solved.

TLDR: companies optimized solely for their own profit, which, while increasing their money, decreased the usability of the overall system.

I’ve been saying this all my life… the west needs a high speed rail

Affordable? In 1964 you could ride round trip in a chair car from Albuquerque to Chicago for $73.80 or over $700 in today's dollar. Airfare is about $500 at the moment and Amtrak is a subsidized $255. It is also almost as fast as it was in 1964 but more likely to be late.

This is why Big Companies are a BAD Idea!!! with no rivels it is just a Government supported Monopoly!!!!

Bring Back CONRAIL BIG BLUE
Before NS and CSX Broke it up Conrail was doing very well for a rail company largely in the later 80s into 90s
Then CSX and NS broke up Conrail now it is just BAD and Horrible service

DOWN with CSX Down with NS
UP with Conrail !!!!!!

The Netherlands: Not 4 or 6 times a day, but 2, 4 or 6 tmes an hour ...

And this is why as an asian I always make fun of american trains 😂😂 I've never seen such a slow train, I might even run faster than the train

Picture mono rail in the meridian of I-25 elevated above road traffic with high speed trains? Picture this high speed monorail everywhere?
Picture this as a light weight train like they are developing in England? Why build massive bullet trains like China? Why not build light weight trains that are more like a 737 fuselage weighing a fraction of a massive rail car?
As a fast commuter train elevated above road and freight rail 200+ mph is very possible. Light, high speed monorails can fit in almost every Interstate meridian.
This is Brightline's failure.

Good documentary. Some other issue were at play. Unions are needed for safety, but some antiquated work rules were kept for too long. Cars, trucks, and aircraft are more flexible and efficient in a number of situations. Amtrak’s financial performance is hurt by Congress and Senate members insisting on keeping deeply unprofitable routes. Rail expansion is costly because of all the real estate requirements. Property owners must be paid the full market price for land, which should not be waived or reduced.

The law isn't the problem. The lack of enforcement is. If delaying a passenger train would cost freight railroads money, if DoJ would file a lawsuit every time it happens, freight trains would get shorter, would fit on sidings, and Amtrak would get through.

Strikes me that both the freight and passenger bottlenecks can be addressed with targeted investments in corridor widening and looping in more secondary ports that already have rail access. There may be several ways to incentivize that. And set an upper ceiling on further train lengthening so that sidings must lengthen with any new training lengthening. Public Action Bonds may help with some of this, along with small regulatory tweaks without throwing out the whole system.

You should do a video analyzing Utah's TRAX and Frontrunner systems

As a lifelong New York resident (first of the capital region and now of NYC), transit rail is something I’ve taken all my life. Heck, when my parents took me to Disney World as a kid, we took Amtrak all the way from Albany to Orlando and back (twice)! I’ve even taken the 50 hour trip from San Francisco to Chicago on Amtrak. In fact, I’ll be on Amtrak from NYC to Boston tomorrow. I’ve been fortunate to live in the Northeast where passenger rail is somewhat accessible and common, but I wish it was better for us and more common and better throughout the country. Unsurprisingly, it’s the greed of wealthy CEOs that has led us to this place. Capitalism is truly an ill. 😢

One thing I've found to be very valuable is the connections within a society, specifically transportation and communication. Transportation gives humans the mobility to access the resources and opportunities around them, and can act like a circulatory system in some organism. With communication, how are you going to help people if you can't even communicate with them? I've always felt there was a lot of untapped potential in the railway system, especially with public transport. It seemed really weird how the US had no bullet trains. Also, I've wondered if widening track width would be a good idea. Those freight trains don't look all that stable, and I could see this used in transporting Navy ships or giant mining equipment.

Trains need to go away big time, they dont make sense in the US. They also need to be fixed so they dont interact with public roadways, its insane that i spend an hour every week waiting on trains but the train company isnt required to compensate me for the time theyre stealing from me to make money.

sadly, many factual errors in this rather glib production. First, Appalachian coal - bituminous - is far cleaner to burn than western coal (lignite). Western coal is the worst coal in pollution sense, so production never shifted west because of ecological interests - that is a ludicrous error to say - but because it's cheaper to mine, since it's vast surface strip mines, usually close to the surface, easier to access and there is more of it in central places like the Powder River Basin. Appalachian coal is actually a better grade of coal, often now exported to be used in steel making in places like China. The reason why coal mining shifted west is seams of Appalachian bituminous coal increasingly got spent or became uneconomic to mine for heating purposes. i This basic error sort of wrecks one of the legs of the argument made in the video.

As a US citizen this is a fantastic dream with realizable first steps. How can I as an individual make an effort to advocate for this? What can I advocate for others to do with me? I am not super educated with the structure of our legislative system (I am an illinois resident living in alabama for school) so I don’t know what I should even do to make this a reality. What concrete steps should we be taking to make these things happen?

I rode the "TEXAS EAGLE"
a couple of times two years ago,
And I can say from experience:
"I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT."
The BUS is very compact,
"BUMPY, SLOW, EXPENSIVE. UNCOMFORTABLE,"
And practically forever between places to get something to
"EAT, or DRINK".
Now sure there is a lot of:
"THE DINING CAR IS NOW CLOSED",
But that could easily be eliminated by making:
"THREE EIGHT HOUR SHIFTS" for it.
As far as the "FREIGHT TRAINS" are concerned,
That can be fixed in a couple of other ways:
(1) Make switches for the "AMTRAK" as sidestepping points if you would every so many miles.
If the engineer hears of a
FREIGHT TRAIN AHEAD,
GET TO THE CLOSEST SIDE RAIL SAFELY POSSIBLE, STAY THERE UNTIL THE FREIGHT TRAIN GOES BY, THEN CONTINUE HIS JOURNEY.
(2) As many tracks keep getting
"DE-COMMISSIONED" by the FREIGHT COMPANIES,
GIVE THEM TO AMTRAK FOR THEM USE.
(3) Or even both.

It's not impossible to do,
"IF THE FREIGHT COMPANIES, AND AMTRAK PUT THEIR HEADS TOGETHER,
THINGS CAN HAPPEN.
The question is how bad do we in the "U.S.A, CANADA, and even MEXICO" want it?
That's the "$62.00 QUESTION."

its this simple- we all use products that are delivered by freight transport companies. TAX THEM AS A NECESSARY TAX FOR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION... It's that simple... Then mandate a separate side by side new rail for public transportation...

no, its not feasable.... the devaluation of human value began... with each consecutive technological breakthrough you become worth less and less and that has never been more true than it is right now on an extreem bell curve.... we are at a point now were 90% of all human work force exists in fields that do not produce or maintain anything connected to sustaining human life.... alot of ppl think that means theres a utopia on the horizon were nobody has to work anymore and it is a logical thought but it is tragicly incorrect... anybody who can decipher what i just is already prepared and those who cannot.... well it was nice knowin ya... try not to work so hard and really enjoy life.... we really dont know how many tomorrows we are gonna get... why the hell you think elons trying to get to mars so bad?? dude honest to god thinks humanity is on the verge of a extiction level event lol.... i know hes right (pretty much nuclear war is all but certain, elites are as prepared to survive it as they will ever be, and are ready to give it a go lol, if they survive they get earth, can they bring it back to life tho? alot of ppl doubt it, i personaly think the sheer amount of oxygen burned alone from such an event will guarantee extinction)

LA to Vegas high speed rail is now starting construction.

The one big issue not addressed in this expose, is the shear waste that goes on within Amtrak. 20k+ employees, laced with top heavy management that treats the working people like shit.

Then you have the fact that all the railroads are exempt from almost all state labor and work comp laws. This is due to outdated regulations & laws from the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.

Amtrak or as we who worked there call it Scamtrak. This entity is scamming the tax payers every year.

All they have to do to make a big improvement in Amtrak's situation is pass some laws limiting the length of freight trains. We could start with one limiting them to the length of the shortest passing siding on the rail line they are using. And how about a limit on the number of locomotives or the total horsepower of the locomotives on a freight train? How about requiring heavily used rail lines to be double tracked except where it's physically impossible? The railroads would scream bloody murder but they would adapt and keep on rolling. Shipping rates would go up, but for the kinds of loads the freight railroads want to haul there would still be no viable alternative. And some of the costs would inevitably be passed down to the general public, but over time a lot of benefit would also accrue, starting with trains becoming a viable alternative to flying or driving between more city pairs.

Trains use less energy per passenger than cars, airplanes, and busses. For this reason, improving and upgrading the American railway system is very important when it comes to fighting global warming and climate change.

This is so called documentary is disappointing. It is not even poor understanding, but instead deep misunderstanding of the is subject issue. You even got something as simple as the 4 consolidated rail lines of today wrong. A documentary? That just sends my eyes rolling.

The reason why automobiles won over rail eventually is because of a variety of reasons, none of which is inherent to the automobile's internal combustion engine. Automobiles eventually won the war because of aggressive closing of streetcar lines as pushed by the automobile industry, urban sprawl & decentralization that resulted from increase automobile popularity, deterioating inner city conditions, and massive public funding of automobile infrastructure such as the interstate highway system.

The reason why Amtrak does not work is not mainly due to a priority issue, but rather insufficient urban densities at the nodes you mentioned to support the ridership needed to make passenger rail viable. Passenger rail realiability inherently required a high population density because it needs some redundancy (e.g. Just in case a line is down for maintenance, people can still rely on it to get them where they need to go), which we unfortunately don't have for a lot of newer cities that you cited. I know for a fact that freight rails routinely stop work to accomodate Amtrak's trains, so saying that they were not given priority is not really a fair characterization.

The only thing I will sign off and agree about this video is the unrelentless chase of OR in tangible and real industries - that applies not just to freight rails, but other capital intensive manufacturing industries such as Boeing, automobile manufacturing, and etc. Wall Street needs to understand that a lower OR is not a metric that determines actual efficiency, but rather economic efficiency that means absolutely nothing to the wellbeing of the industry. It's akin to trying to figure out how to get a chicken that lays golden eggs to keep doing so with the least cost possible - you can only cut out so much until you start measures that can negatively impact the chicken's health. Rather of thinking about OR as a measurement of efficiency, one needs to understand OR is a measure of how well an organization collects economic rent, which pays absolutely zero tribute to the parties or the industries involved. Consider this - one of the best industries and organizations that has the lowest possible OR? The electronic fraud and scamming industry. They used the least amount of operating resources, to secure the most output possible and no extra effort is wasted - but is the world of scammers the one we really want to live in in the name of efficiency? That's the core question we need to answer to ourselves, and to our children / the society of tomorrow.

We haven’t taken AmTrak in about 3 years now. The last time, Portland, OR to ,Stanwood, WA took 18 hours - I can drive it in 5 hours. The train broke down three times. The last time we were loaded onto buses and drove the last 90 minutes. It was a horrible trip, summertime, no AC, limited snack and drinks for the kids.

If I was only The Leader I could force people to do what I want because I think it's cool!

We could all starve without freight trains, then Amtrak would have less passengers to gum up the works. People are stark raving looney.