[differentview97]

I don't understand why Amtrak - the only operator on its own tracks - is unable to make it work, meanwhile in EU you have literally thousands of private operators operating their own trains as well as combined multi-owner trains riding on tracks belonging to dozens of owners... and it works fairly well, there certainly are no 6+ hours delays, at most an hour or so for the whole multi-state 1000km trip.

[czinck]

> the only operator on its own tracks

Amtrak only owns ~630 miles of tracks out of the 21,000 it uses, and basically all of that 630 is in the North East. This is definitely Amtrak's best area, although that's partially because of the amount of people going between Boston/NYC/Philadelphia/DC; the rest of the US doesn't have as many big cities that close together.

> multi-state 1000km trip

If you get on I-5 North in Los Angeles and start driving, 1000km later you'll still be in California.

[Aloha]

On the small portion of the US railway network that Amtrak owns, its quite successful, the Northeast Corridor is most likely profitable (and probably the only profitable part of the Amtrak system).

[ak217]

Europe has dedicated infrastructure for intercity trains used by people who need to get there on time. The US does not (outside the NEC).

Can you imagine a TGV or ICE stopping to hook up a private car?

[differentview97]

Sure I can. On the same track you have many different companies operating their own lines, combined multi-operatoe lines, as well as irregular connections (again single and multiple operators combined).

I've seen multiple operators (some of them entirely private, some entirely state-owned corporations, some combinations) combine their trains on an EuroCity-labelled line more than a few times.

I have a friend who is working on founding his own train company and he's actually providing services to the state-owned corporations where they have him operate their wagons in his combined train, with his own locomotive. He operated a major intercity line several times this way (they use his service when there's a problem on the regular route) - and it stopped to recombine several times. I've personally been on a train ride that combined his private for-fun party wagon with an EC train.

[ak217]

It sounds like your sentiment is part of the same problem in Europe - I mean you said it yourself, you saw delays on these combo trains.

Luckily Europe has high speed rail which does not allow your friend's party wagon to disrupt the schedule. You might imagine a TGV or ICE picking it up, but I don't think it will ever happen.

[differentview97]

That's entirely up to the company operating that ICE or TGV train. Not saying it's going to happen - many companies don't let other's wagons on their trains. But many do.

BTW so far my friend's train was never delayed by his own fault, not sure what problem you're talking about - there's no problem, his train had usually the lowest priority (it costs money to have higher priority) so he's the one waiting for "normal" trains.

When I said there are delays, I meant the "normal" trains primarily. But sure, as he increases operation it's going to happen to him too.

Improve schedule planning and Amtrak won't have problems too.

[pionar]

New York to LA is almost 5 times that length. So your "at most an hour or so" can feasibly snowball to 6+ hours.