frj1983
OBS Chief
Since one of the big topics on this board tends to be the fact that the freight railroads have the tendency to give Amtrak the back seat; I have a question that continually burns the circuits in my brain and I can't find an answer for it:
If the freight Railroads don't have enough track to run the trains the already have, and don't have enough personnel to run the trains they currently have, Why, WHy, WHY do they keep accepting more and more freight??????????
I know that in the past, stories have been written which mention that the railroads are refusing freight, but in the last few months stories have been cropping up about the larger and larger amounts of freight coming from overseas and how the railroads are preparing themselves to handle it. The implication is that the RR's will handle all of this influx. And I can imagine that with the infrastructure problems the RR's currently have, how late will Amtrak trains be then?
It seems to me that they have reached the point (and maybe are past it) where thay have all that they can handle....and thus this supposedly "fluid" system of rail companies impacts Amtrak services with slow orders, bottlenecks, and freight train breakdowns. And I wonder to myself, are they really delivering the goods in any semblance of time to their customers?
If I were a customer looking at transporting goods on a regular basis, and I keep read about late Amtrak trains, it might lead me to ask: if they can't run an Amtrak train on time, how could they possibly help me transport my goods on time? Does anyone on the forum know anyone who transports goods by rail and what their feelings are about it?
This doesn't let Amtrak off on the lateness issue, either. Since their equipment seems to be breaking down more and more regularly...but that's another topic!
If the freight Railroads don't have enough track to run the trains the already have, and don't have enough personnel to run the trains they currently have, Why, WHy, WHY do they keep accepting more and more freight??????????
I know that in the past, stories have been written which mention that the railroads are refusing freight, but in the last few months stories have been cropping up about the larger and larger amounts of freight coming from overseas and how the railroads are preparing themselves to handle it. The implication is that the RR's will handle all of this influx. And I can imagine that with the infrastructure problems the RR's currently have, how late will Amtrak trains be then?
It seems to me that they have reached the point (and maybe are past it) where thay have all that they can handle....and thus this supposedly "fluid" system of rail companies impacts Amtrak services with slow orders, bottlenecks, and freight train breakdowns. And I wonder to myself, are they really delivering the goods in any semblance of time to their customers?
If I were a customer looking at transporting goods on a regular basis, and I keep read about late Amtrak trains, it might lead me to ask: if they can't run an Amtrak train on time, how could they possibly help me transport my goods on time? Does anyone on the forum know anyone who transports goods by rail and what their feelings are about it?
This doesn't let Amtrak off on the lateness issue, either. Since their equipment seems to be breaking down more and more regularly...but that's another topic!