Why are railways so bad in USA (not all of them but almost)?

Question

Why are railways so bad in USA (not all of them but almost)?

Answer 1

The private freight railroads certainly do not spend the bare minimum to maintain their physical plant and right-of-ways and just this year have spent more money than at any point in history not only on maintenance but also expansion to try and keep up with the ever-growing demand to use rail, which is only forecast to continue for many years to come (something which has been all but unprecedented in the industry's long history).  One thing which most folks do not understand is that railroads have one of the highest costs of capital of any industry, meaning they must put much of their earnings back into the company to remain efficient and competitive.  

True, the private railroads focus primarily on freight because freight pays the bills and passenger service does not, which is why they got out of the business in the 1970s and Amtrak was created to serve the intercity passenger market.  If you are asking why passenger service is so bad then you would need to contact your local senator/congressman/woman and ask them why more money is not set aside for Amtrak (as rdenig was saying), which is habitually underfunded and at this point will never be able to operate efficiently with the kind of funding it receives (the state-funded commuter carriers actually do quite well, as far as the services they provide, a good example of which is North Carolina).

Answer 2

Just so you know I work for a large railroad in the construction department, we are always spending lots and lots of money and time into the repair and maintain  our right of ways and rails. There are something like 21000 miles of rail that my company owns so of course we cant get to it all every year, but it is all inspected regularly and the worst parts repaired first. Along with countless upgrades being done system wide, our track dept is replacing rail every day.

Answer 3

because they're using the money they do have just to maintain the status quo, rather than investing in the railroads to improve the tracks and develop high speed rail so railroads can actually become competitive with other forms of transportation.  Look at Europe, their system of high speed rail is vast and they have the highest ridership numbers in the world

Answer 4

I think Danl747 is right, we used the Coast Starlight from Emeryville to Seattle last June and were supposed to arrive at 8pm, we got in at 3am the next day and were told that the Freight trains own all of the rails and that passenger trains have to work around them. By the number of times we had to stop, sometimes for half an hour at a time I would say they are right.

Answer 5

I think because of the advancement of other means of transportation, the rails are now mainly used to transport products

Answer 6

Rdenig hits upon the biggest problem. The roads are built by the public.

Trucks and buses never had to pay for building their roads. The Railways had to pay for building their own roads.

The result was a system where Rail in North America is almost exclusively used for transport of bulk material.

Trucks tear up the public roads and the only reason repairs done well is because the general public uses the same roads, and pays for them.

Another reason is simple corporate economics. They spend the minimum on maintenance of the track because it directly effects the bottom line on the profit ledger in as negative way.

The fines for ecological damage from railroad spills are a joke. The safety concerns are minimalized. If the railroads faced the public costs of the cleanups or the public exposure that they deserve they would clean up their tracks.

But because they do only minor passenger business they are not concerned with public safety very much.

So, so long as they can run freight over a line then there is little repair work done.

Answer 7

It all about money, the big railroad company only spend money to comply to FRA standards or the repair the big money making lines. More concerned about profits than track safety.

I am talking about freight line, railroad company hate Amtrak.

Answer 8

Because most people fly or drive and so railroads dont have money for repairs. They've been obsolete for more than 40 years !!!

Answer 9

Yeah, and what I find really crazy is the fact trains are probably the safest way to travel... They work great in Europe...

Answer 10

because all railways need state subsidy, which the Americans only give grudgingly for Amtrack. Roads are provided at public expense (even thought tolls may be payable) so why not railways? Same comments apply to the UK.

Answer 11

Bad how?  Do you mean Amtrak?  (Because the freight railroads are doing pretty nicely right now.)  

One big problem for Amtrak is that they do not own most of the tracks over which they operate.  They pay the freight companies for usage rights but then have to operate around the freight trains.