I was surfing through the internet looking to learn more about "precision scheduled railroading," (PSR) when I found this:
Class One Railroads: How Did Things Get So Bad? (forbes.com)
From the article, it sounds like the freight railroads have more problems than PSR. In fact, it seems like freight shippers regard the class Is about the same way long-distance Amtrak riders regard Amtrak. It seems that in the freight business if a car is ordered and it's delivered with 8 hours of the ETA, it's considered "on time." This might put some of our complaining about Amtrak on-time performance in a bit of context. The railroads also like to fine shippers for not releasing their cars in a timely manner. Even the most drill-sergeant like Amtrak OBS don't fine customers who don't follow all their rules. The end result is that the freight railroads seem to be losing market share to the truckers. This may get worse when truck platooning becomes more viable. From the point of view of climate change and control of emissions, this has some disturbing implications, as rail is inherently more efficient in terms of fuel consumption and emissions than trucking. Maybe the shippers need to work with environmental activists to shake some sense into the Class Is. On the other hand, if things get so bad that the Class Is collapse into bankruptcy, perhaps there's a reasonable chance of nationalizing the nation's railroad infrastructure and reorganizing the rail industry in a more rational way -- designed to move freight and passengers efficiently, not play Wall Street games to enrich a few in top management.
Class One Railroads: How Did Things Get So Bad? (forbes.com)
From the article, it sounds like the freight railroads have more problems than PSR. In fact, it seems like freight shippers regard the class Is about the same way long-distance Amtrak riders regard Amtrak. It seems that in the freight business if a car is ordered and it's delivered with 8 hours of the ETA, it's considered "on time." This might put some of our complaining about Amtrak on-time performance in a bit of context. The railroads also like to fine shippers for not releasing their cars in a timely manner. Even the most drill-sergeant like Amtrak OBS don't fine customers who don't follow all their rules. The end result is that the freight railroads seem to be losing market share to the truckers. This may get worse when truck platooning becomes more viable. From the point of view of climate change and control of emissions, this has some disturbing implications, as rail is inherently more efficient in terms of fuel consumption and emissions than trucking. Maybe the shippers need to work with environmental activists to shake some sense into the Class Is. On the other hand, if things get so bad that the Class Is collapse into bankruptcy, perhaps there's a reasonable chance of nationalizing the nation's railroad infrastructure and reorganizing the rail industry in a more rational way -- designed to move freight and passengers efficiently, not play Wall Street games to enrich a few in top management.