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Amtrak launches new 160mph Acela trains — but they take just as long as the old ones
(www.independent.co.uk)
this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2025
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As long as they're running on the same tracks as freight, that's always going to be the case.
The Northeast Corridor (where the Acela runs) is owned by Amtrak and is not shared with freight. It's the track curves that are the problem. This is some of the oldest right of way in the US.
For anyone who doesn't know, freight trains make a lot more money and will illegally take the right of way over passenger trains and just pay the fines. This happened to me on my first and last train ride in the last decade. Waited over an hour on the tracks as the angry conductor explained the situation.
What? In US the right of way is decided by the trains, not infrastructure dispatchers? What you described sound like the freight trains just commonly run through the stop signal which is a BIG NO-NO.
In a lot of cases in the US the lines themselves are privately owned so the owners will prioritise the most profitable services. The punishment for delaying a passenger service is a fixed fine with no further implications, so that fine is just a business expense.
Legally passenger rail has the right of way, but reality can turn that around.
Each of these is quite legal, and even normal to some extent, but adds up to huge delays and unpredictable schedules for passenger rail
NOTE: this is also one cause for our unacceptable levels of accidents. As freight trains get slower and longer they block at grade intersections for unacceptable lengths of time. As they’ve gotten longer without updating sidings and rail yards to match, there are too many cases of trains stopped blocking at grade intersections. Too many drivers frustrated by too many delays tempts some to cross the tracks when it’s not safe, with predictable results.
This is why America will never compete with places like japan or China because they build dedicated rail for their transport networks.