The whole time we were in flagstaff freight trains went by, seemed like nearly on the hour. The cross bells always banged and flashed. Stacked double with containers from the Pacific ports, or tanker trains endless as some early composition like Philip Glass. The scale of the freight operation was grotesque and impressive almost as much as the canyon. Strange to think so much of America acts like rail is antiquated and irrelevant. At least here it obviously is not.
@futurebird In the western US, long distance passenger rail is awful because Amtrak shares tracks with slow, massive freight trains and freight has priority and doesn't have to consider Amtrak schedules, resulting in hours of delay for long trips.
@not2b @futurebird And that's before you get to the lack of routes. I grew up in St. Louis and now live in Orlando. If I wanted to take a train back to my childhood home, I'd have to tour the entire east coast before turning to ride the northern border towards Chicago before finally turning south again to head to St. Louis. It's like a 2-3 day trip.
