• Mirshe@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    2 days ago

    Try closer to 30 average. Most rail isn’t rated for above 50 outside the Northeast Corridor, and you’re also pausing for hours at a time sometimes because freight rail gets priority treatment.

    • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      edit-2
      2 days ago

      Not sure, and actually I think passenger gets priority, but there’s so few compared to freight it porb leans that way…

      I still FUCKING LOVE Amtrak.

      • Corn@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 day ago

        Legally passenger gets priority, however to increase the already disgusting profit margins and decrease capital expenditures (why spend on infrastructure when you can pay dividends and do stock buybacks), they have been running longer and longer trains without increasing the length of sidings so when a passenger train wants to pass a 2 mile long freight train, there’s literally nowhere the freight train can go to allow it to pass.

        The DoT could fine the railroads each time they do that until they either run shorter trains or build the appropriate sidings, but they choose not to.