[Jeff Chandler]

16% of rail traffic is passenger, which runs on private tracks. Freight trains are privately owned, including the freight railcars, and while they are required to allow on and give precedence to Amtrak on their tracks, it is common for Amtrak travelers to find themselves sidetracked, waiting for long slow freight trains -- far longer than the side tracks -- to pass by. That's why Amtrak can't keep on schedule.

Those (private) freight trains are loaded to the hilt and don't run until they can tack on as many cars as possible, and given barely enough power to make it over inclines. Speed is not a concern for them, only profit.

[PGR88]

Everything you said is true - but you miss the point

Its a system that’s WORSE than monopoly. Its an incompetent and bloated Fed.gov monopoly on passenger, but they don’t even control the tracks. Its Marxism, without even owning the means of production!

Let’s just imagine - if we removed the last 100+ years of Fed.gov regulation - that the rail companies were also allowed to run passengers on their own tracks? What if they had complete freedom to set schedules and pricing? Or they could lease the tracks to other private operators - for a cut of the profits?

What would happen?