[xg15]

> Between 8 a.m. and 12:49 Central Time, Amtrak says it counted three trains on CSX’s tracks.

> After publication, in response to a Motherboard request for comment, CSX dismissed the Amtrak stunt. “It takes a freight train about 8-10 hours to travel between New Orleans and Mobile,” a CSX spokesperson said in a statement. “Focusing on one point of a line that traverses approximately 138 single track miles, major ports and Interchange points and then purporting that it is indicative of the operational realities of the entire line is grossly misleading. Anyone that understands railroad operations, including Amtrak, would know that.”

So CSX argues the entire 138 mile track would be blocked if there is a single train travelling anywhere on it?

Efficiency!

[makomk]

It's probably not quite that bad, but if there's a single train anywhere on any single track section that means the entire section is effctively blocked off to traffic in the other direction, it sounds like there's a lot more than a single freight train on it at any given time, and Amtrak wants to run round trips down the entire 138-mile track a couple of times a day.

[ars]

It's not quite as silly as it sounds - Amtrak trains travel at twice the speed of cargo ones. So you have to clear at least half the track before an Amtrak train can enter. But there's no problem running a cargo train after the Amtrak one.

[zeckalpha]

Maybe some lines, but here they travel at the same speeds.