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Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

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Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#61

Post by Mistletoe »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #53
crooked-v wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US federal government certainly is not known for providing high quality service at low cost, quite the opposite in fact. The Post Office stands as a prime example of an extremely high quality service provided at a comparatively tiny price, and one that's successful and self-sustaining even while dealing with the immense costs of reliable delivery to extremely rural areas.

extremely high quality service Really? When's the last time you had to go do something at the post office? It is a nightmare. Dirty building with disinterested workers, and long slow lines. The bulk of the mail I receive is junk mail, and multiple times a week I get my neighbor's mail.

Ok send a letter by UPS and FedEx for 60 cents to anywhere in the USA.

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#62

Post by stetrain »

mlindner wrote: post #47
nopenopenopeno wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem here is that freight trains have so much priority in the US, unlike every other major country in the world. It doesn't matter how many or what kinds of trains we have. This sort of policy will always makes trains an unreliable and therefore impractical mode of transportation. And this is a major reason for the US leading the world in carbon consumption per capita.

This isn't true. Amtrak has priority by law over freight in the US as long as they are on time. They don't get priority once they area late. What happens is that Amtrak becomes late and then they lose their slot and become further late.

But as far as I know there is no enforcement action taken when the freight railroads violate that priority.

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#63

Post by justahuman74 »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #53
crooked-v wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US federal government certainly is not known for providing high quality service at low cost, quite the opposite in fact. The Post Office stands as a prime example of an extremely high quality service provided at a comparatively tiny price, and one that's successful and self-sustaining even while dealing with the immense costs of reliable delivery to extremely rural areas.

extremely high quality service Really? When's the last time you had to go do something at the post office? It is a nightmare. Dirty building with disinterested workers, and long slow lines. The bulk of the mail I receive is junk mail, and multiple times a week I get my neighbor's mail.

But they provide that same service reasonably evenly across the whole country, your zip code is the same 'value' as any other. In plenty of remote places you could easily call USPS extremely high quality service, perhaps even delivering by horse which a private company would never do without high cost

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#64

Post by dgoldstein0 »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #53
crooked-v wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US federal government certainly is not known for providing high quality service at low cost, quite the opposite in fact. The Post Office stands as a prime example of an extremely high quality service provided at a comparatively tiny price, and one that's successful and self-sustaining even while dealing with the immense costs of reliable delivery to extremely rural areas.

extremely high quality service Really? When's the last time you had to go do something at the post office? It is a nightmare. Dirty building with disinterested workers, and long slow lines. The bulk of the mail I receive is junk mail, and multiple times a week I get my neighbor's mail.

Most interaction with USPS is at (residential) mailboxes. Sure, post office service is not great but they do a decent job of moving letters, post cards, and packages in a relatively timely manner - and the service for letters and postcards is damn cheap. In now remote / rural areas of the US, no for profit company would bother providing service, as it is wouldn't be profitably - but USPS serves everyone.

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#65

Post by crote »

mlindner wrote: post #46
pstuart wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should look at nationalizing the rail lines and then investing in them to accommodate freight and passenger traffic more effectively. Positive Train Control[1] and judicious expansion of switches/bypass lanes should allow us to better saturate the rails so that throughput is maximized. This could even enable new passenger services other than Amtrak to operate in competition. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posi…

Nationalizing them would be a disaster. They were deeply unprofitable until the federal government de-nationalized them after it had nationalized them and practically ruined them in the process of that nationalization. Let's not ruin what good things there are.

Are you talking about Conrail?

Because Conrail was created because the private railway system was collapsing due to mismanagement, and many railroad companies were going bankrupt. After nationalization Conrail quickly turned into a huge success, and was sold off to private investors after a decade for a massive profit.

If anything, privatization was the best thing that had happened to the railways in decades. And that's not exactly a one-time-thing only - the railways were previously also nationalized during WWI, which had a similar success.

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#67

Post by runarberg »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #53
crooked-v wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> US federal government certainly is not known for providing high quality service at low cost, quite the opposite in fact. The Post Office stands as a prime example of an extremely high quality service provided at a comparatively tiny price, and one that's successful and self-sustaining even while dealing with the immense costs of reliable delivery to extremely rural areas.

extremely high quality service Really? When's the last time you had to go do something at the post office? It is a nightmare. Dirty building with disinterested workers, and long slow lines. The bulk of the mail I receive is junk mail, and multiple times a week I get my neighbor's mail.

As somebody that moved from Europe to the USA, I can attest that the USPS is the best postal system I have ever encountered. The service level is far above anything I saw in Scandinavia by a long shot. In Iceland the Postal Service is declining really rapidly, so much so that there isn’t even a post office any more down town in the countries biggest city. Yet in the USA you can get a package delivered to your door in rural Washington, all while sending a mail costs a fraction of what it costs in Scandinavia.

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#69

Post by adgjlsfhk1 »

xyzzyz wrote: post #26
woodruffw wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all important context, and I thank you for including it. I agree it's not as clear cut as "public versus private." But there's a recurring theme here: public money enabling private growth, followed by public money softening private decline. Railroads are just one instantiation of this pattern: it shows up in agriculture, industrial manufacturing, medical and materials research, &c. At some point, it should ma…

The railroads were sure funded by public money, but it most certainly has not been taxpayer money. Instead, it was money invested by private individuals. Government did help the railroads with vast grants of lands, but most of the value of the granted land stemmed from the railroads that were built nearby. It was in fact a great deal for taxpayers, a win-win situation. > One wonders what the US's rail infrastructure…

> US federal government certainly is not known for providing high quality service at low cost, quite the opposite in fact.

Medicare is a great example to the contrary. They provide healthcare to the sickest groups, and do so with roughly 3x less overhead than the private healthcare industry.

Re: Amtrak asks fed regulators to investigate Union Pacific handling of Sunset Ltd

#70

Post by bastawhiz »

mlindner wrote: post #47
nopenopenopeno wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The real problem here is that freight trains have so much priority in the US, unlike every other major country in the world. It doesn't matter how many or what kinds of trains we have. This sort of policy will always makes trains an unreliable and therefore impractical mode of transportation. And this is a major reason for the US leading the world in carbon consumption per capita.

This isn't true. Amtrak has priority by law over freight in the US as long as they are on time. They don't get priority once they area late. What happens is that Amtrak becomes late and then they lose their slot and become further late.

What happens when late freight makes Amtrak late? You can't just make a freight train evaporate from the track because Amtrak has priority.
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