Step 1: Sell off Conrail just as it makes a profit, devastating American railroads for a century.
Step 2: Allow mergers of railroads nationwide, leaving 4 companies in control of most rail in the country. They barely compete with each other since most of the market is segmented. Most routes are controlled by one and only one corporation. This leads to gross inefficiency and sky-high rates.
Step 3: Allow mergers of airlines across the country, reducing service and increasing fares.
Step 4: Private railroads reduce the ability of AMTRAK to serve communities. This leads to our airports being jammed up with local routes which are the majority of flights in North America.
Step 5: Airlines increased ticket prices due to the lack of competition and the devastation of American railroads. Most people drive.
Airlines profit. Oil companies profit. Private railroads profit.
You don't profit. You lose.
All of this can be reversed by just bringing the railroads back under government control. AMTRAK and potentially some private railroads (flix train anyone?) are able to compete with each other and this competition with most airline routes will mean the airlines need to treat their customers better and charge you less money.
There are a few proposals right now to create better rail service in the United States. California HSR is the most promising, it is double tracked, high speed, and the best quality we are building. Unfortunately, we need to build brand new track because the existing rails are private, so we cannot do incremental improvements because of our system. So we need to go all in and build a brand new track. There is no other way.
there are a few other projects. Texas HSR is the second most promising, because it is a joint project between AMTRAK and has a good plan.
Brightline is making big claims abut its expansion in Florida and California, but they are not double tracking their California line, their Florida will not be high speed rail, and their fares are already the highest in the country. They also have more fatalities on their line than any other railroad, due to lacking safety precautions, so I am skeptical. Someday they will most likely be taken over by AMTRAK.
While I applaud the expansion of passenger rail in general, this is too little, too slow, and too late. We need more, and we need it soon. We need to nationalize all of the private tracks in the country. We need to bring them under control of AMTRAK. AMTRAK can then make a small profit, improve tracks around the country incrementally, fixing the lowest quality highest demand tracks in the country and expanding out from there. AMTRAK should be able to levy bonds to cover capital improvements (building track, improving track, and buying trains) so they can grow quickly. They will make revenue from passenger rail and freight rail. Private passenger rail (such as Flix train) will be allowed to run on the tracks along with AMTRAK, but AMTRAK will own the track itself. AMTRAK will regulate the usage of our track with safety regulations, to ensure it can work for everyone. There will be no more of this precision railroading bullshit.
Why not drive? Several reasons. Driving is not as sustainable, driving will always be slower, and driving is often more expensive than a good functioning rail system if you pay for the infrastructure you are using. Trains are far more affordable to operate and assuming drivers pay for the entire cost of the infrastructure they use, far less expensive for the end user.
Our transportation system is broken. Our transportation system needs reform.
I want to be at camp with my friends, but instead I will be at home this weekend because American railroads are a laughing stock.
Nationalize the railroads.
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