Wendover Productions
4 HN recommenders · recommended in 6 months, 2023–2025
23:19 · 3.6M views · Jan 10, 2023
Wendover Productions explains why Amtrak trains run late: most Amtrak routes run on freight-owned track, and the law giving passenger trains priority is rarely enforced. The video covers rail ownership versus control and how freight carriers hold the leverage.
HN commenters cite it whenever passenger rail delays or expansion come up, as the clearest explanation of freight priority over Amtrak.
8 comments from Hacker News
It's not an enforcement issue so much as it is a heavily exploited loophole. Part of the reason freight trains are so long is so that they can't fit in passing sidings. Since Amtrak does fit, they end up having to yield because the freight trains simply cannot. Could this be fixed by legislation on max train length to ensure all trains fit in sidings? Yes. Will that legislation get passed? No. An interesting video on the subject: this video
Wendover Productions posted an interesting train-related video recently. this video It would appear that the issues with Amtrak can be traced back to freight rail as well. See 07:46 onwards for more details.
While technically true, that law is never enforced, so in practice OP's statement is sadly correct. Wendover Productions made a great video [0] explaining this situation. [0]: this video
wendover did a good viedeo about that a while ago: this video the law says that passenger trains have priority, but nobody respects or enforces that.
We kind of do. It's just that the tracks are owned by freight companies BNSF, Union Pacific, CSX, or Norfolk Southern. Take a look at their system maps. BNSF: [LINK] UP: [LINK] CSX: [LINK] NS: [LINK] Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City fill in a few gaps in the US and extend the system to Canada and Mexico. Throw in Ferromex and that covers most of North America. We have the trackage, we need to find a way to put passenger rail on a better footing against freight carriers. See this video