American freight trains

[mtbc]

Three of the four places in which we lived in Ohio were close to a railway line that routinely carries freight. In visiting central Michigan, the house in which I stayed last summer and the apartment this year are close to each other and also to a railway line that I recently viewed from Meridian Township's excellent interurban pathway system. After my first couple of nights I was again becoming used to the sound of the locomotive's horn blowing even in the early hours of the morning. I got to wondering what fraction of people in such states live within earshot of the railways, perhaps many. It could be that my own experience is unrepresentative.

In Massachusetts the railway line near our apartment also carried passenger rail: I briefly used it to commute to Concord. However, I am more used to the long, slow freight trains. Given their dominance away from the coastal states, I also wondered if a lack of passenger rail is enabling for freight: if fast commuter rail and long freight trains get in each other's way rather.

Comments

[mindstalk]

The US is said to have a very good freight rail system, vs. our crappy passenger system, and Europe something of the reverse. They *do* get in each other's way if you try to use the same tracks, but there's no deep reason for that; right of way commonly has enough room for four tracks, one in each direction for freight and passenger.

Commuter rail is going to be more about having a big city people commute to; Chicago has Metra, as well as being a crossroads of both freight and Amtrak passenger (such as it is.)

[mtbc]

It is sad that the main passenger station for Columbus, OH, was removed. Maybe there was an awkward interim during which cars and better highways were replacing rail traffic before they had also helped the metropolitan area in general to grow.