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.

@MissGayle They have priority in law—but the freight companies just pay the fines. It’s all in the blog post in the link.

@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.

@straphanger Back in late 60s and early 1970s, the reason the Turbo was able to do Montréal-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.

@straphanger When both CN and CP abandonned Sudbury-Ottawa (Capreol-Ottawa for CN), it meant that Winnipeg-Montréal/Halifax traffic had to pass through Toronto which further congested Toronto-Montréal 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).

@straphanger Circa 1981, CP announced end of commuter services in Montréal, 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 Québec 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

@ObbieZ @straphanger
Amtrak from Vancouver CA to Seattle has been sidelined for freight quite frequently

They’ve talked about upping the Amtrak trains to four a day (from two)

But if the schedules can’t be solidified it ruins the whole thing

@straphanger During the CP-QC era, CP-QC provided good priority to the commuter trains and worked to allow the St-Jérome 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.

https://www.royalcanadianpacific.com/train/

@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.

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 Nofu¢k Southerns of the world convince me that #railroads must be #nationalized.
@AccordionBruce @straphanger