Reply to "AMTRAK to suspend long distance trains article"

trainroomgary posted:

IC EC poste

 Before Amtrak, how did the railroads manage to operate their own passenger trains on time?

Hi IC EC:

To make a long story short, in the glory days of passenger trains, 20's  30's  40's & 50's. The railroads owned their tracks, for example The New York Central own their tracks so they controlled the schedule.

Amtrak does not own the tracks for these long distant trains, they are a guest, so they have to follow the freight trains, and Amtrak trains are placed onto sidings to wait.

Gary: Rail-fan

Gary,

That was more of a rhetorical question.  The private railroads used to operate both freight and passenger trains, often with a much higher passenger train frequency than the mostly once-a-day in each direction Amtrak trains, and managed to keep the passenger trains mostly on time while still operating freight trains.