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.