Back 50 or more years ago, the private railroads in this country hauled both freight and passengers. Regulating the passenger operations was the Interstate Commerce Commission. That meant the railroads had to get permission from the ICC before they could make changes of any consequence in schedules and or in fares. Even when passenger…
Here’s one to toss around over dinner: the Union Pacific Railroad has been flying drones over some of their rail yards. The company’s stated reason is that they’re monitoring safety procedures—watching for workers crossing between cars, climbing down off of moving equipment, and other infractions that are frowned upon by the safety people. As…
Most people don’t realize that Amtrak trains run on track owned by the freight railroads everywhere in the country outside of the Northeast Corridor (Washington-New York-Boston). Amtrak pays a fee to those railroads for handling their trains, plus a little something extra for running the Amtrak trains on time. The on-time part of that…
Trains running behind schedule are the single biggest headache Amtrak has to deal with, at least in terms of day-to-day operations. Trains can be late for any number of reasons—bad weather or equipment problems, for example—but the most common cause is freight traffic. Amtrak’s long-distance trains operate over track owned by the freight railroads and…