I spent a lot of time on a recent train trip from #Vancouver to #Toronto on railway sidings, waiting for a slow-moving freight train to pass.
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@xavier_hm @straphanger It is actually true that passenger trains get legal priority over freight in the US, even on freight-owned track!
There's a loophole though: if you make the freight trains longer than the sidings, the dispatcher can send the freight first because the shorter Amtrak train is the only one that can physically give way.
Additionally, if the passenger train is running late it forfeits priority, which causes it to get stuck behind more freight and get more late, rinse and repeat.
@Dilong @straphanger this is super interesting! thanks for the extra context.
the amtrak services in IL are so great to have, they've made me a huge fanboy lol. hoping i can get a station closer to home one day.
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@Dilong @straphanger this is super interesting! thanks for the extra context.
the amtrak services in IL are so great to have, they've made me a huge fanboy lol. hoping i can get a station closer to home one day.
@xavier_hm @straphanger heck yeah, I rode the train to Milwaukee and back last time I visited Chicago and it was great! We have the Amtrak Cascades here and it's definitely not perfect but such a great thing to have available (and it goes to Canada too!)
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@straphanger Frequent Amtrak rider here:
I've been on too many trains that seemed to pull over for every coal train that came along. I was once told by an attendant that even though Amtrak had right-of-way by law, the freight carriers would rather pay the fine than pull over.
Some carriers (UP) are worse than others (CP).
@ObbieZ CPKC gets an A+ from Amtrak for sharing tracks; UP is the worst with B- (more in the blog post)
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I believe you are mistaken about American passenger rail. Freight companies own the lines outside of maybe just the northeast, and passenger rail gets sided when freight is on the same lines.
@MissGayle They have priority in lawβbut the freight companies just pay the fines. Itβs all in the blog post in the link.
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I spent a lot of time on a recent train trip from #Vancouver to #Toronto on railway sidings, waiting for a slow-moving freight train to pass.
In the US, Amtrak trains have legal precedence over freight trains.
That's not the case in #Canada, where VIA Rail plays second fiddle to Class One freights like CPKC.
Does it have to be this way? I take a look in the latest HIGH SPEED dispatch:
@straphanger If you take Los-Angeles Chicago, connecting tothe Lake Shore (Chicago-New York) and you miss your connection, Amtrak pays for your hotel and meals till next day, and when he delay was cause by the freigh railroad, the freight railroad has to compensate Amtrak so there is *some* incentive to schedule everything to work, As another poster said, the "priority" aspect is overriden by physical limitation on tracks and sidings.
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I spent a lot of time on a recent train trip from #Vancouver to #Toronto on railway sidings, waiting for a slow-moving freight train to pass.
In the US, Amtrak trains have legal precedence over freight trains.
That's not the case in #Canada, where VIA Rail plays second fiddle to Class One freights like CPKC.
Does it have to be this way? I take a look in the latest HIGH SPEED dispatch:
@straphanger Back in late 60s and early 1970s, the reason the Turbo was able to do MontrΓ©al-Toronto in 03:59 wasn't higher speed, but rather higher average speed and this is because CN atrranged its schedules so no freight train would slow down the Turbo ar those hours.
Once VIA was created, this incentive went away and CN/CP let VIA through on best effort basis.
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I spent a lot of time on a recent train trip from #Vancouver to #Toronto on railway sidings, waiting for a slow-moving freight train to pass.
In the US, Amtrak trains have legal precedence over freight trains.
That's not the case in #Canada, where VIA Rail plays second fiddle to Class One freights like CPKC.
Does it have to be this way? I take a look in the latest HIGH SPEED dispatch:
@straphanger When both CN and CP abandonned Sudbury-Ottawa (Capreol-Ottawa for CN), it meant that Winnipeg-MontrΓ©al/Halifax traffic had to pass through Toronto which further congested Toronto-MontrΓ©al line, leaving far fewer slots for passenger trains.
When CN was nationalized, it had more of a mission to make VIA work Once privatized, it set out, like CP had done, to thrown VIA out of its tracks. (CP succeeded with the 1989 end to transcon and almost all other routes on CP).
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I spent a lot of time on a recent train trip from #Vancouver to #Toronto on railway sidings, waiting for a slow-moving freight train to pass.
In the US, Amtrak trains have legal precedence over freight trains.
That's not the case in #Canada, where VIA Rail plays second fiddle to Class One freights like CPKC.
Does it have to be this way? I take a look in the latest HIGH SPEED dispatch:
@straphanger Circa 1981, CP announced end of commuter services in MontrΓ©al, so PQ government intervened and got CTCUM to take the Rigaur line over and then the Deux Montagnes line.
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@straphanger Circa 1981, CP announced end of commuter services in MontrΓ©al, so PQ government intervened and got CTCUM to take the Rigaur line over and then the Deux Montagnes line.
@straphanger Meanwhile, CP was planning its move out of Québec and after moving HQ to Calgary, split Québec into separate company and planned to end its trains at Les Cèdres, while letting QC subsidiary going bankrupt.
CP Rail QuΓ©bec suddently liked the commuter service for the $ got agressive to regain customs CP had lost interest in and managed to turn a profit instead of going bankrupt.
After CP Ltd split itself apart, CP Rail was left with only the railway to survive, re-integrated CP-QC
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@straphanger Frequent Amtrak rider here:
I've been on too many trains that seemed to pull over for every coal train that came along. I was once told by an attendant that even though Amtrak had right-of-way by law, the freight carriers would rather pay the fine than pull over.
Some carriers (UP) are worse than others (CP).
@ObbieZ @straphanger
Amtrak from Vancouver CA to Seattle has been sidelined for freight quite frequentlyTheyβve talked about upping the Amtrak trains to four a day (from two)
But if the schedules canβt be solidified it ruins the whole thing
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@straphanger Meanwhile, CP was planning its move out of Québec and after moving HQ to Calgary, split Québec into separate company and planned to end its trains at Les Cèdres, while letting QC subsidiary going bankrupt.
CP Rail QuΓ©bec suddently liked the commuter service for the $ got agressive to regain customs CP had lost interest in and managed to turn a profit instead of going bankrupt.
After CP Ltd split itself apart, CP Rail was left with only the railway to survive, re-integrated CP-QC
@straphanger During the CP-QC era, CP-QC provided good priority to the commuter trains and worked to allow the St-JΓ©rome and Candiac lines to open.
But CP-Calgary never got interest in having passenger trains, though it allows the Rocky Mounrtaineer to use the Canadian route to Banff (but doesn't go to Calgary since there is no longer usable station there).
And low and behold, passenger-averse CP-Calgary runs its own luxury trains. No issue with schedule.
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@straphanger During the CP-QC era, CP-QC provided good priority to the commuter trains and worked to allow the St-JΓ©rome and Candiac lines to open.
But CP-Calgary never got interest in having passenger trains, though it allows the Rocky Mounrtaineer to use the Canadian route to Banff (but doesn't go to Calgary since there is no longer usable station there).
And low and behold, passenger-averse CP-Calgary runs its own luxury trains. No issue with schedule.
@straphanger I think the recent slate of delays is CN seeing opportunity to kill VIA off since VIA has been weakened by federal govenrment and not given what it takes to survive. Installing switchea on Kingston sub that limit trains to 130kmh is definitely something CN did intentionally. These tracks supported 10 axle Turbo at 155kmh all the way. Now CN wants 32 axles min.
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@ObbieZ @straphanger
Amtrak from Vancouver CA to Seattle has been sidelined for freight quite frequentlyTheyβve talked about upping the Amtrak trains to four a day (from two)
But if the schedules canβt be solidified it ruins the whole thing
Trucking companies don't own the highways.
Airlines don't own the air corridors.
These are owned, regulated and managed by the Public.
The main-line railroads must also be part of the Public infrastructure. Then the traffic would be managed and regulated in the *Public* interest, as opposed to the commercial interests of private corporations.
The abuses of the UPs and NofuΒ’k Southerns of the world convince me that #railroads must be #nationalized.
@AccordionBruce @straphanger -
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