Without a federal law, no there isnt. And Union Pacific holds alot of lobbying power within the GOP, as we all know.Perhaps, but there's no way the freight railroads would ever do that. :lol:
To be fair, that is the deal with Amtrak's use of all the railroads and has been since day one though all Presidents and Congresses, Republican and Democrat. It is not a new thing and it has nothing to do with 2006 politics. The fact is that indemnification is widely used in many industries and is the only way Amtrak could remotely afford to access the freight railroads.Without a federal law, no there isnt. And Union Pacific holds alot of lobbying power within the GOP, as we all know.Perhaps, but there's no way the freight railroads would ever do that. :lol:
As I understand it, it's not just with Amtrak, but all railroads basically pay for their own costs in the event of a wreck. Whoever owns the track pays to fix it. Whoever owns the equipment pays to fix it. Whoever had the inconvenienced customers (passengers or freight shippers) has to make arrangements and deal with them. It may not always seem fair, but that's the way it is.To be fair, that is the deal with Amtrak's use of all the railroads and has been since day one though all Presidents and Congresses, Republican and Democrat. It is not a new thing and it has nothing to do with 2006 politics. The fact is that indemnification is widely used in many industries and is the only way Amtrak could remotely afford to access the freight railroads.
That's true, however in the 80's many of the railroads either sold to shortlines or got rid of extra capacity in an immediate attempt to save money. This was short-sighted as now many of them are putting in more capacity(probably more expensive than the short term gains they achieved those many moons ago). Thus there is less track on which to reroute Amtrak. And if one does read your contract with Amtrak (printed on back of the ticket, or is it on the folder it comes in?) there is an explanation of what could happen in certain situations.The reason that Amtrak was formed was because the private railroads were begging to not have to continue the money losing passenger service. In exchange for being able to give up passenger service, the freight railroads had to allow Amtrak to continue to use their track as a tenant. In the early days of Amtrak when there was a derailment, trains were rerouted most of the time and not just terminated with no alternative transportation. That is something that has occurred in only in recent years.
actually, that's not 100% accurate - from LA, those on train 2 were given the option of taking train 4 to KC or Chicago and then taking a SB train 1 or City of New Orleans (depending on final destination); 30-40 passengers took that option, the others had the option of waiting until today or getting a refund...(and there were several unsold sleepers on train 4, so the sleeper passengers were still pretty well taken care of)Freight derailment near YUM led to cancellation of 2(26) and 1(27) with no alternate transportation provided.
actually, that's not 100% accurate - from LA, those on train 2 were given the option of taking train 4 to KC or Chicago and then taking a SB train 1 or City of New Orleans (depending on final destination); 30-40 passengers took that option, the others had the option of waiting until today or getting a refund...(and there were several unsold sleepers on train 4, so the sleeper passengers were still pretty well taken care of)Freight derailment near YUM led to cancellation of 2(26) and 1(27) with no alternate transportation provided.
I agree with you totally, but I still think it would be worth the effort to make the accounting work. I am happy to say that trains 1 and 2 have run again twice west of NOL since the "hiatus." The timekeeping by UP has been pretty bad, as usual. I believe the bill to UP should include the extra crews, the extra accomodations and taxis, the amortized hourly costs of the equipment, the extra fuel charges, etc. Then if you start getting into the inconvenience factors for the passengers, how about putting a dollar value on that? Lawyers do it all the time when somebody gets hit in an automobile accident. What is the value of missing Aunt Mildred's funeral when that was the sole purpose of your trip? I realize that most of the passengers who take a long distance train have other reasons than needing to be there for a specific appointment (i.e. can't fly, can't drive, etc), but being late has its costs, and people shouldn't be treated like a bulk rate commodity.As to sending statements to the host railroads.... waste of time unless you print it on toilet paper, in which case they might actually use it. On the other hand, UP might use it to determine which dispatchers get promoted - the ones responsible for the most Amtrak delays would probably get the nod. Instead, send those statements to the media, see if the newspapers would print it everywhere the host railroad operates, and send a copy to every single member of Congress, every month. And print a monthly summary, in simple terms, with simple, clear explanatory language, and have those summaries available for every Amtrak passenger, with the suggestion that they write to their Congresspersons and Senators, include some of the relevant statistics, and demand that something be done about it.
But of course that would require the Amtrak Board to be pro-passenger-rail, so we' remain dead in the water.
The UP is a worthless RR they don't only mess with Amtrak they try to run the BNSF Railway i get hammered by them all the time if they cant use our main track they make us sit and wait to use a conectiong track to get on the Huey P Long bridge we get verbaly abused by the UP on the radio.
So does Amtrak around Avondale LA
UP is just a stupid RR and they have all the power in the world no one will stand up to them.
UP''s treatment (and the Bush Administration's) of Amtrak is a disgrace. I cannot see how the GOP and the Bush administration could be doing a worse job than than are right now.Theres no doubt about it, UP has friends with this adminstration. Its a fact. Yes , UP is messed up, but their getting away with murder as far as their treatment of amtrak trains go.
Any stockholder of UP that is grinning from ear to ear must be in an asylum. They're obviously not aware that UP shot itself in the foot with a howitzer the past few years, reducing capacity, followed by such a huge increase in freight to move that molasses in January would look like water by comparison. They're so saturated with freight they can't move anything, they've had to frequently turn down prospective customers, and what they DO move moves very slowly and late. If a UP stockholder is happy with that, I think they need to take the "sunny day" painting off of the window and actually look to see what the weather is like outside.
First, do you realize that the world had already let this one go? It took your post to revive a discussion about something that had been posted over two weeks before. Note the date of your post above, compared to the date of BNSF’s post below.I sincerely hope the administrator catches this one before the world replies to this nonsense. And you call yourself a "Director?"
Second, while perhaps his blanket statement about UP is a bit far reaching, nonetheless as a working conductor for BNSF who has been torpedoed more than once by UP, I’d say that he’s entitle to his opinion of UP. He never said that this was anything more than his opinion.The UP is a worthless RR they don't only mess with Amtrak they try to run the BNSF Railway i get hammered by them all the time if they cant use our main track they make us sit and wait to use a conectiong track to get on the Huey P Long bridge we get verbaly abused by the UP on the radio.
So does Amtrak around Avondale LA
UP is just a stupid RR and they have all the power in the world no one will stand up to them.
Finally, as has been repeatedly explained, the job of a moderator is to maintain a civil board and when needed, to promote conversation. It is not to decipher who is or isn’t telling the truth! Furthermore, as has also been explained more than once, there is no way to put someone under control on a board that anyone can post to. I could spend the next six months deleting new accounts that BNSF could setup if he so desired, so that he could keep making whatever posts he wants, good or bad. And for the record, he does make many good posts!My grinning was related to the fact that we have a poster, on this site, who the administrator will not put under control. Last month he was shutting down Amtrak. This month "all" the UP is stupid. What does it take to get someone to understand that you can't go around making accusations without facts; I feel that I presented mine fairly honestly even though it seems I hurt your feelings with the truth and the facts to back them up. Sorry about that, but after 37 years of Louisiana mosquitoes you start to develop an alligator hide. Sorry.... all I'm trying to do is point out that you cannot go around telling tall stories all the time.
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