If we don’t begin to add more capacity to existing lines, the economy *will* begin to suffer (even more). Adding capacity, even simple things like removing choke points as was recently done with Chicago’s Brighton Park junction, helps the landlord railroads but also helps the tenants, Amtrak and the commuter lines.

If we try a Big Bang high speed system, we’ll still not have the freight capacity we need and we’ll have a system that may or may not be successful but one that sure can’t move goods!

Now, add capacity, i.e. put back all the second, third, and fourth main tracks that were ripped out over the last 30 years, and the whole system, passenger and freight gets better.

Eventually so many folks will be riding the train that new lines will be needed just for that … THEN start building high speed lines.

But don’t do it before then.

Mike Gitlin-Seattle, WA.

“GOOD”
* CN, City of New Orleans, 93.5%
* BNSF, Empire Builder, 87.1%
* BNSF, Southwest Chief, 75.8% (on BNSF’s super-busy Transcon route)

“BAD”
* CSX, Cardinal, 34.6%
* CSX & NS, Lakeshore Limited, 19.8%
* NS, Crescent, 19.4%
* UP, Texas Eagle, 14.5%
* UP-1,400 mi & BNSF-1,038 mi, CA Zephyr, 14.5% (UP the main “culprit” as westbound CHI-DEN OTP similar to other BNSF stats above)
* CSX, Silver Meteor & Silver Star, 11.3%
* UP, Sunset Limited, 7.7%
* UP-1,203 mi & BNSF-186 mi, Coast Starlight, 3.3%(UP the main “culprit” as soutbound SEA-PDX OTP similar to other BNSF stats above)

What is needed now and for the short/intermediate term is more rigorous enforcement of 49 USCA 24308(c) Preference over freight transportation. If CN and BNSF can do it, so should others - no excuses.

However, when the Staggers act was passed back in the late seventies, the railroads ripped up thousands of miles of branch line trackage, furloughing employees and saving millions of dollars of annual operating cost.

Unfortunately, by this time, Wall Street had invaded the boardrooms of the nations railroads, and mainline trackage deemed “excess capacity” was also abandoned wholesale, resulting in the current mess of inadequate rail capacity that we see today.

The truth is, however, that even though many of the major rail corridors outside of the northeast are choked with far more freight traffic than can be reasonably handled on those lines, the operation of a handful of daily passenger trains should be a routine matter.

Even the ‘hot’ intermodal trains on these rail lines end up sitting outside of terminals for hours waiting for yard space or crew availability while Amtrak’s few trains sit behind them. This occurs on a daily basis around every major city with intercity rail passenger service. It appears to be nothing more than intentional poor planning on the part of rail management at times.

We certainly do have a rail infrastructure crisis on our hands. Problem is, it was caused by the very industry that now needs government intervention (read: $$) to help replace capacity that never should have been eliminated in the first place.

Finger-pointing, of course, won’t solve the problem. The administration in Washington needs to get its collective head out of the sand and out of the auto/highway lobby’s pockets and realize that intercity rail passenger service is necessary for our continued mobility in an age where fuel prices are starting to affect that very mobility.