Amtrak’s Long Battle with Host Railroads

Over 55 years since Amtrak was formed, it still has trouble getting priority on the mainlines of its host railroads. As it turns out, Amtrak has struggled with this for a very long time, and has clashed with past and present railroads. Special thanks to ‪@BlakesTrainsandMore4014‬ for letting me use some of his footage for this video. If you'd like to learn more about Amtrak's host railroad history, check these links out. New York Times 1971 Story: https://www.nytimes.com/1971/11/15/ar... New York Times 1979 SP story: https://www.nytimes.com/1979/12/22/ar... Chicago Tribune 1990 story: https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/0... E&E Story: https://www.eenews.net/articles/amtra... 1990s delays and host railroads: https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.d... Root causes of Amtrak delay (very helpful for 2000s class I percentages!): https://www.oig.dot.gov/sites/default... 1990s Amtrak on time records: https://www.bts.gov/archive/publicati... 2000-2024 Amtrak on time records: https://www.bts.gov/content/amtrak-ti... The Railway Age article on the Coast Starlight has since been removed it seems but this article remains: https://www.railpac.org/2007/08/19/th... I forgot to mention it in the video but the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act is also worth a read: https://amtrakoig.gov/sites/default/f... Image sources: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi... https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fi...