Canadian National, not Amtrak, is making this train late
September 26th, 2008 at 11:15am Chuck Sweeny
Amtrak tries hard, but there’s nothing the national passenger train company can do about the Canadian National, which owns the tracks our train runs on.
At the moment we are sitting on a siding somewhere in rural Mississippi while we wait for a northbound CN freight train to pass us. In theory, passenger trains are supposed to have prioritiy over freights. That’s in theory. In practice, it doesn’t happen. The conductor keeps us updated, admitting that “we don’t know where he is” about the freight train. Obviously, we can’t proceed if he’s still on the main line coming our way.
What was supposed to be about a five-minute delay is now a half hour, and no sign of the northbound. You think maybe CN is trying to tell Amtrak something, like scram?
Now we are under way again. Funny, that northbound never did show up. Hope he’s not down the line somewhere. This is only a single track mainline.
Entry Filed under: late train
2 Comments Add your own
1. Mark | September 26th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
First; let me start by saying I am an a HUGE fan of trains and would love to see them here in Rockford. That being said, I DO feel the need to comment on this article on behalf of the rail world in general. I don\\\\\\\’t know where the information came about that passenger rail is supposed to have priority over freight? I have spoke with workers at Union Pacific and let me tell you, Freight is where the money is; not passenger service! Granted, I want passenger service more than you can imagine, but lets be realistic! You are going to hold up a train pulling millions of dollars of cargo with maybe three engines pulling it that are burning five gallons of diesel for each mile to wait for a passenger train carrying 300 or so passengers paying under $20 on average? I don\\\\\\\’t think so! Freight gets priority.. because they are driving commerce!
2. Jim Loomis | September 26th, 2008 at 11:10 pm
FYI, Freight railroads are required by law to give priority to Amtrak trains. Most of the time they do not, even though there is a system in place to hit them with fines when they delay Amtrak in favor of their trains.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed