With all due respect the double track complaint is rather weak. Even Oberman [sic] admits that there's a huge cost to it. The freights don't need all that capacity. If you want to run Amtrak trains faster with double track the onus is on the federal government to pay for that.
And note that back from the Obama days rules were put into place in regards to what constitutes giving passenger trains priority. Whatever problems there were in the past the only train that doesn't meet those right now is the thrice weekly Sunset Limited.
As far as I can tell the core of that issue is UPS Southern transcon is congested. It's not an issue of up not wanting to keep those passenger trains moving. They just don't have the capacity. Maybe I've got that wrong.
With all due respect the double track complaint is rather weak. Even Oberman [sic] admits that there's a huge cost to it. The freights don't need all that capacity. If you want to run Amtrak trains faster with double track the onus is on the federal government to pay for that.
And note that back from the Obama days rules were put into place in regards to what constitutes giving passenger trains priority. Whatever problems there were in the past the only train that doesn't meet those right now is the thrice weekly Sunset Limited.
As far as I can tell the core of that issue is UPS Southern transcon is congested. It's not an issue of up not wanting to keep those passenger trains moving. They just don't have the capacity. Maybe I've got that wrong.