OPB: generally good points.

However: I thought that most of the damage done
tto roads is done by 18-wheelers. And it seems
to me that none of the Class 1 railroads are interested
in any business except coal and grain and all those
doublestacks. Maybe, just maybe, if the
Class 1s had not ripped up so much track (spurs
and branch lines), they might be cajoled and induced
to go after other business -- which could take those
rroad-damaging trucks off our deteriorating highways.

We also need much more double and triple and even
quadruple track, so as to allow more fluidity. No one
would even dream of seriously proposing two-lane
freeways or even single-lane freeways, yet this is what
railroads are stuck with now: far too much single-track
territory, which cannot easily handle much new business.
And they certainly cannot handle more Amtrak trains.
(No, I don't know how to fit more tracks into some places,
but that is a subject for another thread.)

Gosh, I hope things get better soon!