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Backshophoss wrote:IF UP reopens the Phoenix Sub to thru traffic,figure on Amtrak trying to return to Phoenix "Union station" in that city's center.
Backshophoss wrote:Buffalo-Cleveland is one of the joint mainlines shared by CSX/NS and an area that delays the Lake Shore 90% of the time.
CSX NEVER plays nice here!
east point wrote:It appears time to change the PRIIA rquirements. The requirement for 750 miles even when interstate routes are involved seems disingenious .
mtuandrew wrote:I see what you mean about political value, but from my perspective the balance point is much further toward Viable Transportation Option and away from Pork-Barrel Express for most Amtrak trains. Where the corridors aren’t served well or at all by rail, it’s due to a vacuum of political willpower, rather than small-endpoint trains being solely a concession to political pressure - if that were the case, those trains would have much worse load factors than they do in reality.
In regards to right-of-way swaps, most railroads have very deliberately chosen which routes they occupy today. If Amtrak were to propose swapping the NS Chicago Line (ex-NYC Water Level Route) for both an upgraded Chicago, Ft Wayne & Eastern (ex-PRR) and upgraded ex-Nickel Plate across Indiana and Ohio, they’d get laughed out of Norfolk because the ex-NYC has a much more favorable grade profile. If they tried to negotiate for the ex-PRR mainline from Harrisburg to Pittsburgh, they’d get laughed out because of the online traffic and shorter route, even though there is a lower-grade route via Sunbury, Williamsport, and DuBois.
We’ve recently seen agencies buy a permanent right-of-way easement next to a freight line for a passenger main, or build a second, third, or fourth main for mixed traffic, or agree to assume ownership/a lease over a secondary railroad that sees (could see) much more passenger traffic than freight, or take over custodial duties on a railbanked line with the intent of reactivating it. I don’t think you’ll ever get the really major extant routes under government ownership or control, except possibly in cases where a merger makes one line redundant. (For instance, if CP and UP merged, it’s conceivable that the FRA could insist that they lease the ex-Milwaukee Road or the ex-Omaha Road to the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.)
mtuandrew wrote:Would NS play nicer on the ex-Nickel Plate?Backshophoss wrote:Buffalo-Cleveland is one of the joint mainlines shared by CSX/NS and an area that delays the Lake Shore 90% of the time.
CSX NEVER plays nice here!
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