>>> Freight usually doesn't complain about delays. <<<<

The freight may seem content to just sit somewhere without complaint, sometimes for days; waiting for crews, or track capacity, or just for someone to get around to it. But for most commodities, it goes by truck the next time! 70% of the highest value tonnage already does.

Railroads now only attract the lowest value stuff and only then at the longest hauls. The only bright spot is intermodal imports. But even then, the return on investment is very marginal. Its no wonder they can't earn enough to attract all the capital they need from private sources.

Worse yet, import service schedules, relative priorities, and even the hardware, is dictated and managed by others, not the railroads themselves. It is precisely all these competing externally managed and therefore uncoordinated services that make the railroad's promises to Amtrak impossible to keep. Even the BNSF has a lot of struggle keeping competing freight services out of each other's way - and Amtrak's.

Railroads are very very foolish to not run their freight services on a tight, disciplined and connected schedule, with rigid cutoff times for each departure. You know, like the short frequent and fast manifests such as the UP used to run - when they were a well run company that actually did earn the cost of capital and keep their customers.

Of course if they did that now, with today's $100 a barrel oil, they'd earn back their freight customers in a hurry. Not only that, Amtrak's few trains could be easily taken in stride.

But, they probably don't remember how - or even why. They'd rather blame it all on Amtrak. Too bad!

OPB