On one of my recent California Amtrak rides, I saw a conductor giving a passenger a hard time for taking pictures of his child sitting in front of him and of the scenery outside of the dirty window. The imposing conductor was citing home land security reasons.
About a decade ago, the town of Lafayette and West Lafayette made a lot of efforts to revive the rail culture by spending a lot of money to relocate the old train station. It was a major event for the locals with formal ceremony and all. But a few months later, Amtrak reduced the station down to...
NO! High speed rail system is dedicated to passenger trains only! No freight trains to be allowed - at least that's the plan. That's one of the reasons for high speed rails in the first place!
Almost all my California train rides in the past 3 years get delayed at least an hour or more consistently. This particularly true for San Joaquin line. This line is run by Caltrans, which is notorious for its inefficiency. Train officials consistently blame it on freight trains! High speee...
There has been a strong resistance to passenger rail development for decades in Indiana. The magnificent train station in Indianapolis has turned into a shopping mall while politicians are trying to bury the reminesence of rail travel as deep as they can. This is consistent with the culture in...