In Canada, to my understanding, it's the other way round where passenger trains have been reduced because of the need for more cargo train trips. The USA might be similar.
But the USA is VAST. Freight trains are LONG. Not much of America's West is actually double track. And when you have a shorter Amtrack and a long freight train the Amtrack loses. The Amtrack has to wait until the freight train has passed.
As the freight trains run on PSR [1] there is no fixed time as to when they pass and thus the Amtrack can not run reliable.
As such it is easier for me to drive from West Los Angeles to Las Vegas, or even to drive to LAX and then fly to LAS than it is to take the train.
https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/projects/dotcom/english/p...
the law says that passenger trains have priority, but nobody respects or enforces that.
"Under PSR, freight trains operate on fixed schedules, much like passenger trains, instead of being dispatched whenever a sufficient number of loaded cars are available."
So do they leave on a fixed schedule, or is there no fixed time? It sounds like the previous system had no fixed time (leave when ready) whereas in the PSR world - there is in fact a set schedule.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/5dgezn/the-worst-and-most-eg...
Why is everyone here claiming that is not true? Is Wikipedia wrong?
I spend a lot of time reading to what the union members said.
E.g.: https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjkzbq/28-freight-rail-worke....
That sentence doesn't match with the idea of a fixed schedule. A fixed schedule doesn't require you to be on-call, because you know when the train will leave.
I'm confused now.