Microblog Memes

Heh in true AI fashion it said a lot of words to give very little actual information, references the highest profile new rail infrastructure project but then conflates that with a proposed plan to simply add passenger trains to existing freight corridors (and of course upgrade existing infrastructure as needed in the process)

The best part is, if you wanted a realistic plan for improving North American passenger rail network all you have to do is ask your friendly neighborhood train autist and you'd get a far more informative answer than whatever the heck this is.

Hey, here's that informative answer from a friendly neighborhood train autist: the biggest barrier to passenger rail (and any actual improvements to the rail network for that matter) is the freight railroads, and the biggest thing freight railroads hate it's investing in infrastructure. If we're making talking ambitious the very first thing that needs to be done is nationalizing the entire rail network. Remove the freight railroads from the equation because they can and do quarrel with passenger service providers regularly because a freight train carrying raw materials for a factory in Albuquerque had to pull into a siding to let today's Cardinal passed (a 3 times a week train!) so take away their control so passenger trains can be correctly prioritized.

Its also worth noting railroad law is based on so many dusty old 19th century laws paid for by the Robber Barrons of the day that are somehow still on the books and painfully difficult to work through in a legal manner, so having a strong federal government ready to legally smack down the freight railroads is critical to such an endeavor.

Next, an analysis needs to be performed of what cities are currently connected to the rail network that can easily have a station opened and regain passenger service, creating many new routes on the existing rails. While those stations are being built/refurbished an order needs to be placed with a major manufacturer of rolling stock for new passenger cars. It needs to be structured to ensure enough business for the rolling stock manufacturer that they can maintain a production facility indefinitely. Make it easy for regional, local and private operators to also order rolling stock, maybe even develop 2-3 standard cars that all new passenger stock can be based on to keep things simple and cheap, occasionally refreshing the design as needed to maintain modernity

Finally, as those new passenger services over existing freight trackage are being stood up, new passenger corridors for new trackage needs to be identified so that ground can break and work can begin. Again, being federally owned rails this cuts past a ton of red tape and makes this process much easier.

With this process, most of the country can be connected to passenger service within a decade just by using existing rails and patching up the biggest barriers to passenger service. The freight railroads will kick and screen because how dare Union Pacific be expected to let BNSF or heaven forbid CPKC have any trackage rights through Moffat Tunnel for example, and all will want to hang onto their key passes and not allow any other railroad to use them to maintain their local monopolies. That's a game of politics beyond the scope of this comment. But importantly, nationalizing the network will make any blocking freight railroads try to do completely impotent, and building up a proper national passenger equipment pool will ensure the the network can run the passenger services it wants and needs to run without the limitations of finding equipment to run it