Why aren't U.S. railways better funded?

Question

Equipment and tracks are getting old. Layoffs are happening even as ridership is way up.

Answer 1

As the wife of a railroader let me tell you this, the company he works for here on the east coast has many full time maintenance crews that work on the rails,signals,sub stations etc. They take excellent care of miles and miles of track. They( the company he works for) make millions of dollars every quarter because they have major contracts . They have these contracts because of their reputation for excellence and their outstanding safety record. Each railway system is "owned" by various companies. These companies are responsible for rail repair. Not the govt.So I would suggest if there is a problem with track in your area for you to call whatever company uses that railway most often and report it. If you get no result then go to the media. Trust me the last thing any of these big rail companies wants is bad publicity.

Answer 2

Railways never took off in the US. Before they could develop, the Wright brothers invented the airplane, and the airplane superseded the railways. Moreover, a sparsely distributed population (relatively small population spread over very large areas) makes airplanes more economical than railways (although plane companies are having their own profit problems since 9/11).

Europe is different. Japan is different. Dense population concentrated in a small area. Rail is better than plane in these countries.

US being a capitalist country doesn't usually subsidize projects if they are uneconomical. The railways therefore have not been given much attention in the last 100 years.

For the same reason, you also won't see a railway network crisscrossing Australia.

Answer 3

The freight RR's are going great.   Read Railway Age and you'll see. Here http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/sb/ra100...

Regional transit is being built like crazy, everything the NJTransit RiverLINE to the L.A. Subway.

Amtrak sucks at a national level because it's greatly disliked by conservative Republicans.  But they're not even on the ballot this year, so next election will be very good for Amtrak especially considering high fuel prices.  Meanwhile several states are subsidizing Amtrak for better service in their state.  The Capitols (San Jose-Sac) didn't even exist 15 years ago, now they're Amtrak's third busiest corridor.

Answer 4

Why isn't US anything better funded?  For a country that goes around calling it self the greatest country in the world it sure is going down the drain.  More than half of the rest of the world has everything we do and more.  If I wasn't completely broke thanks to this place, I would move.

Answer 5

It's not as bad as you think it is. U.S. railroads are owned by corporations and companies. There are not funded. That's what free enterprise is. And actually, the railroads are very healthy. There are more trains running now than at any time in history in the U.S.  There are some lines in some areas that don't support a lot of rail traffic, and of course, not a lot of money is put into them. But where rail traffic is heavy, the tracks are very well maintained. Again, free enterprise. This is what makes companies and services efficient and economical. Funding always leads to financial waste and money corruption.

Oh, and I haven't heard of any layoffs for many years. Most railroads are hiring. And many still complain about lack of employees.

Answer 6

Our elected representatives cant see beyond the next election, people have not made their wishes known in such a manner that the legislators can hear.

Ridership is up in every sector, proving that people want to ride and will if they have that option.

To have a good passenger rail system it requires a long term commitment and it is hard for people to vote for that.

So, we have a system that is a national embarrassment.

As far as equipment and tracks getting old, well the track is owned by individual private companies and where I live the track is on pretty good shape, it is all maintained to freight standards and is therefore slower than true dedicated high speed passenger rail lines.

To have a high speed rail line it has to be dedicated to passenger service only.

Amtrak has bought new equipment in the last few years that is very nice.

I rode passenger trains in Europe and they were older and rattier than most Amtrak equipment with the exception of Eurostar and TGV.

I dont know what you mean by layoffs, every major railroad in the country has been hiring lately. On the BNSF and UP they have hired literally thousands of train service employees and plan on needing more.

Answer 7

funded by who..the government?? LOL..they already tried running it and lost money for 25 years before they gave it up