There is something called "Precision Scheduled Railroading" (PSR) which ultimately means that freight trains are longer than they used to be. (https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-23-105420) The result is that these long trains (even 3 miles long) can't fit on sidings, which means that they can't practically give way to, say, Amtrak, when there's only a single track. (Which is a lot of routes!)
In other words, freight rail has optimized very hard on saving costs, and since they own the tracks, there's not much Amtrak can do to win.
I think the only real solution is dedicated, grade-separated tracks for passenger trains (ideally high speed), but that's unfortunately a pipe dream :(
This is a good summary. The other element is that Amtrak only gets priority if they stay to their schedule. They have a slot where they are expected, and have full priority. However, if they get delayed, and miss their slot, then another train will get in front of them, and then they're further delayed, etc., etc. The dispatchers can give them priority when there are two trains waiting to enter a segment, but that doesn't help if the segment is 90 miles long, Amtrak would run it in an hour at 90mph, but the freight train that left 20 minutes ago at 45mph is going to be in that segment for 2 hours total. Nothing Amtrak can do will allow it to be passed, especially if the freight is longer than any sidings that are available for enforcement.
Some additional enforcement might help, but in the end, with most of the network having large single-track sections, and the long trains of PSR, it's just not a network built for timeliness. About 50% of the train load in America is bulk commodities of one form or another (Coal, stone, grain, etc.) All of these commodities are generally stable and non-spoilable. Thus, the customers don't really care much about punctuality. A power plant can maintain some hours or days of inventory in a big pile next to the plant. If the train with the next load of coal is 8 hours late, it has little impact, you just dig a little deeper into the pile before it's refreshed. 8 hours is a big difference to passengers.
Is it impossible to expand the sidings? Maybe make them 5 miles long? Sure it's not free, but it doesn't seem like it should be outrageously expensive. Is this just classic underinvestment in infrastructure coming back to bite you in the butt?
Yeah, the main issue is mostly that the network is designed for lowest-cost, non-time-sensitive freight, and fast, time-sensitive Amtrak trains inevitably get stuck behind something slow, or waiting for something slow to clear from the other direction. A passenger-first network would look like Japan, with lots of double-track, few sharp turns, etc. It would cost more overall too.
The real solution is to eliminate private ownership of track. Corporate-owned track makes as much sense as corporate-owned highways, ie none. The rails should belong to the people, and companies allowed to use them as the government allows, not the other way around.
Britain seems to have a better system than the US. In the US the rails are privately owned, but the train service is operated by the government. In Britain the rails are owned by the state but the operators are private. That seems to make for a better experience.
Britain has gone through regular and repeated crises with their trains, and pretty much the entire system went bankrupt during COVID. The government paid what it took to keep it going, but it's not a smooth system by any means. Even during what people would consider the heyday of British Rail, it still required significant and ongoing government subsidies:
Better only in narrow relative terms. The privatised trains are a disaster of Tory politics and renationalisation is a vote winning proposal. The lines which gave most problems have been resumed by the state in some cases.
I miss BR. Bit of a shame it was Jimmy Saville voicing "this is the age of the train"
Rail demands subsidy. Public utility functions often do.
I would say the exact opposite. Eliminate government ownership of the trains. The government is not "the people". It's a monopoly maintained by violence.
With all the lawyers in this country you’d think one of them on the train would use their hours long delay to assemble a law suit against the freight rail companies. What an insulting deal for taxpayers!
In other words, freight rail has optimized very hard on saving costs, and since they own the tracks, there's not much Amtrak can do to win.
I think the only real solution is dedicated, grade-separated tracks for passenger trains (ideally high speed), but that's unfortunately a pipe dream :(