- [Announcer] If you want to travel by Amtrak from Houston
to San Antonio, Texas, you only have one option,
the Sunset Limited, a long distance train making 22 stops
from New Orleans to Los Angeles.
It only runs three times a week
and according to Amtrak
is over an hour and a half late on average.
Compare that to the Northeast,
where 40 Amtrak trains link Philadelphia
to New York every day.
Amtrak has said for years
that it wants to replicate this model
in fast growing metropolitan areas,
like San Antonio, Phoenix, and Atlanta.
But over the last 50 years,
the rail network has remained largely unchanged.
So why hasn't Amtrak expanded?
- So the biggest problem for Amtrak
in areas outside the Northeast
is that they don't control their own fate.
They're running along tracks that are owned
by the major freight railroads of the country.
- [Announcer] If Amtrak wants to increase service
it needs to negotiate with freight carriers.
But those companies have long resisted calls
to make more room on their tracks for passenger trains.
- Really, this just comes down to an inevitable tension
when the freights and passenger railroads have to share
a limited capacity of track.
- [Announcer] The only area where Amtrak owns most
of the tracks is in the Northeast Corridor.
- For that reason,
and because it's much more heavily a passenger corridor
they're able to run a lot more trains much more frequently
and that's why you see the ridership in the Northeast
that you don't see in other parts of the country.
- Amtrak has been renting tracks from freight companies
since its inception,
that's because freight rail used to move goods
and people on its tracks.
But by the end of the 1960s-
- They were running outta money
and they were in particular losing money carrying people.
- [Announcer] So in 1970, Congress bailed out the railroads
and created Amtrak to relieve freights of the obligation
to provide passenger rail service.
Part of the deal was that freight trains
would give Amtrak right of way on its tracks.
- Although the law requires them to get out of the way
and practice, they don't.
- [Announcer] Amtrak blames freight rail for its delays
saying passenger trains have to wait
for freight trains to pass.
According to Amtrak,
freight rail caused passengers nearly 15,000 hours
of delays in 2021.
Part of the problem is that freight carriers
run longer trains, some stretching over two miles.
- If the train is too long to fit all the way
onto that small siding,
then you're still gonna be in the way
of whatever train is behind you.
- [Announcer] Amtrak says, freight rail not only prevents it
from operating trains at higher speeds
but also makes it difficult to add more trains
by demanding excessive capital investments.
- The freights and their advocates in Washington
can get pretty frustrated about the passenger rail advocates
not taking seriously enough the work that they are doing
because so much of the nation's commodities and goods
are moving around on the rails.
- [Announcer] Privately owned freight companies
spend more than 20 billion each year
maintaining and improving their tracks
according to the American Association of Railroads,
a trade group that includes Amtrak and freight carriers.
The group says Amtrak and freight rail share the same goals
of providing efficient and reliable service
to both passengers and freight customers across the country.
- This is train 125.
- The freight railroads also say
that they do a better job making way for Amtrak trains
than Amtrak would make it sound.
- [Announcer] But if the law requires freight trains
to give priority to Amtrak, why hasn't that been enforced?
- There really are two reasons.
One is that Amtrak has been essentially fighting to survive
for most of its history,
fighting to survive both
because there are people in Congress
who would've loved to have it just go away.
Also because they just struggled sort of budget to budget
to just keep the lights on.
- [Announcer] That's partly why Amtrak
hasn't bought more tracks from freight railroads,
because it would be prohibitively expensive.
- And also the freight railroads need these networks
so they would not be in the mood
to give up any of this trackage.
- [Announcer] The second reason Amtrak
hasn't really been successful pushing back
against freight companies
is that there hasn't been a good legal structure
for Amtrak to assert its rights.
- There was a railroad regulator
called the Interstate Commerce Commission,
which was winnowed down and eventually eliminated.
The ICC sometimes did take actions
to improve passenger traffic
but it was spotty over the history of of Amtrak.
- [Announcer] But things started to change in 2008,
Congress passed a law that directed Amtrak
to help develop a set of metrics and standards
to rate the on-time performance of its trains.
- This would be a way to measure whether Amtrak trains
were delayed in a way that they're not supposed to be
by freight trains.
- [Announcer] After years of legal wrangling
that led all the way to the Supreme Court,
the on-time metrics took effect in October, 2021,
which gave Amtrak the ability to begin building its case
against freight railroads.
In December, 2022,
Amtrak filed a complaint against Union Pacific Railroad,
its first ever use of the 2008 law.
In its complaint, Amtrak seized on that Sunset Limited line,
its most delayed route in the country.
- This is a sign of how aggressive Amtrak is becoming
about trying to enforce its rights
and being willing to pick a big fight
with the freight companies.
- [Announcer] A Union Pacific spokeswoman
said the Sunset route is a critical Union Pacific artery,
and it is essential that Union Pacific and Amtrak
collaborate to design a schedule that is reasonable
and achievable.
The other big change in Amtrak situation,
the 2021 Infrastructure Law.
- This law is the most significant investment in rail,
the most significant investment in rail
since we created Amtrak about 50 years ago.
- [Announcer] The railroad received $22 billion
in direct aid and will also have access to $44 billion
aimed at boosting passenger rail service.
- They are still and will always be reliant
on federal subsidies
but their balance sheet is much stronger.
They are replacing cars and locomotives
at a rate that's much higher than anybody has seen.
- [Announcer] In 2021, Amtrak released its 15 year vision
which includes improving 25 existing routes
and adding 39 new ones across the US.
Imagine trains connecting Phoenix, Tucson,
and Southern California, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio,
and Nashville, Atlanta, and Charlotte.
Amtrak says this proposal is a starting point
but the Federal Railroad Administration
will help determine the final plan.
- They've done a lot of market research
over the past few years
about whether there's demand for passenger rail like this.
They also have been doing a really aggressive job
of courting local officials.
Amtrak points to that as evidence that this will work.
- Every study shows you you get from point A to point B
on rail as faster than you can on automobile.
You don't take the car you get in the train.
- [Announcer] But to make sure customers keep choosing rail
over other transportation options,
Amtrak says it's new service can't have hour long delays.
The key to success,
a new arrangement with the freight railroads.
(upbeat music)