Quote:
Originally Posted by swimmer_spe
Are you saying that Amtrak is forcing freight off the rails?
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I'm not saying anything about Amtrak. I made it clear earlier that my statements pertain to Canada and not the US since I'm not familiar enough with US intercity rail and obviously there are enough potential differences between countries that it's best not to speculate.
Fact is, it's easy to say "If they can do something why can't we" while it's orders of magnitude more difficult to accurately answer such a question. There's always a temptation to make assumptions such as "There's no good reason" or "There must be some reason" but without sufficient knowledge to actually know, the question and attempted answers are pointless so we need to give that aspect a rest.
Another thing I find frustrating is that people sometimes treat political obstacles are less important or challenging than other types of obstacles such as those involving engineering or economics. Like, "It's just a matter or us "choosing" to do it. Easy!"
In my experience that isn't at all true. With politics it usually means that there are stakeholders who stand to gain or lose power, money, or privilege based on a decision and they're not simply going to be persuaded by a convincing argument. Success only comes after a huge and nasty fight which is an uphill battle if the opposition is already powerful. With technical issues, if you're smart and innovative enough to find a creative solution, you're good!