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Well, then, Amtrak needs to build their own lines if they don’t like what is available. No, wait, they can’t do that. They don’t have any money, except what they can bilk out of the taxpayers.
IMHO, the Taxpayers should use eminent domain to seize ownership of the tracks.
That way the freight and passenger lines could share the taxpayer-owned rails just like the trucking and busing companies share the taxpayer owned Interstates. (Or just like the freight and passenger airlines share the taxpayer owned airports and air traffic control system. Or just like they way passenger cruise ships and freighters share taxpayer-owned harbors and ports.)
Privately owned transportation rights-of-way are an abomination and an offense against American's freedom.
Really? Where would I find that in the Constitution?
So, you for the abolishment of private property? Hmmmmm.....
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Willie- I think you might might mean for taxpayers to “carve out” a part of the paid for rights of way of the freight rails to build dedicated tracks for passenger rail that is not used by freight. The hardest part about all this is the economic motivation to do so. Much of these decisions are made for us by technology, like so many other things. Freight rail is not motivated to do more than their lease arrangements require- similar to a landlord not spending money on upkeep.
The history of how railroads of the old days got the rights of way in the first place is one of corruption and greed that is legendary in our history. Hard to wrestle away an ill gotten gain. The fingers in the pie are many— or to put it in Asian terms— whose rice bowl is being emptied.
Thank you for your posts. From the urban corridors, people can get to the bigger NPS parks. Others not so much.