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Comment by _red | Hacker News Reader

That assumption is: plane with current on-time arrival percentage vs train with mythical 100% on-time arrival.

There are a whole host of additional problems that affect rail travel that you never have to think about with air-travel.

Currently, Amtrak OTA is 80% - so that means 1/5 of your trips will experience a delay of some sort.

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Amtrak doesn't own the right of way for most of their routes.

I assumed that the Northeast Corridor (which I believe is the only place where Amtrak actually makes any money) would be much different from other routes but that actually isn't the case. Acela is better than the long distance routes but not by a huge amount.

Of course OTA % doesn't account for the size of the miss and I've heard plenty of stories of long distance trains sitting for hours while multi-mile long freights go by.

Some trains in the northeast corridor also get bounced by local commuter trains that have priority on the tracks.

Several times I've been on the Downeaster headed to Boston and gotten shunted onto sidings, to the point that we got an hour behind schedule.

Where right-of-way is shared with freight, freight has priority.

That seems rather backwards. Passengers are the more time-sensitive cargo than freight.

Presumption would be it's much harder to stop/start a freight train vs. a passenger train.

Not to the freight line companies owning the networks (Apparently there is a law saying that Amtrack has priority, but enforcing it has as of now just lead to years of lawsuits, without useful results)

Agreed. Except that it's the freight railways that generally own the trackage in most (all?) places where it's shared with Amtrak. And the freight railways generate significantly more revenue from that trackage (about $75B annually vs $3B).

There's also the small detail that it's the freight companies that actually own the tracks in most cases so they make the rules.

Sure, but the freight companies own the track, so they prioritize their own trains.

Not if you look at the money tied up in the cargo, vs the fares refunded.

This is the problem with the stupid American capitalist system. You have these sorts of problems.

If it were all controlled by the Government, like it is in other countries, nobody would need to have 'priority'. You just schedule the trains properly.

Sounds great Benito.

This is presumably a reference to the famous Mussolini claim about having made the trains run on time[0].

[0] http://www.snopes.com/history/govern/trains.asp

How silly you are, to expect government to be responsible for coordinating things. The only reasonable purpose for government is to hand out candy to friends, relatives, and people who can keep you in government.

This is patently false - Amtrak has the right of way by law.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/49/24308

"intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation provided by or for Amtrak has preference over freight transportation"

What qualifies as commuter rail? I think most of Amtrak's cross-country tracks would probably not be considered intercity or commuter lines.

Amtrak is the contracted operator for a number of commuter rail services, such as MARC. Not sure if that counts as "by or for Amtrak".

The real issue is that often operationally, a passenger train has to stop for a freight train. If you have a 1000' siding that you have to have a 6 car passenger train pass a 30 car freight train at, the passenger train is going to have to stop for the freight train. That doesn't even take into consideration other factors like how freight dispatchers don't like to stop hazmat/"hot" trains for safety reasons.

According to this, the law is not enforced: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/article/Amtrak-has-priority-ov...

You clearly have never taken Amtrak over distances. I have taken Amtrak numerous times Emeryville - Denver.

The reality is:

1. if the siding is only 1km long - the Amtrak train is taking the siding as the freight train will not fit on it.

2. if the dispatcher decides the freight train goes ahead of Amtrak -- there is no lawyer around to argue the point.

3. if there is a long section of single tracking, with freight backed up the opposite direction, the dispatcher allows the all the same direction freights to move. ( 2+ hour delays when that happens )

4. If there is enough of a delay and a freight train crew in front goes outlaw - then that train stops until a replacement crew is brought in... which usually results in the Amtrak crew going outlaw as well.

It has gotten a lot, lot better and the scenery is beautiful - but please don't kid yourself about the realities on the ground. Amtrak has to stay in the good graces of the railroad companies especially with a hostile congress.

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