Quote:
Originally Posted by Bugeater
One of my friends' grandfather is retired from Union Pacific, and he has always emphasized to the rest of the family to NEVER use passenger rail. The tracks simply aren't maintained well enough for it to be safe.
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That is the truth.
Before my current job, I was a structural engineer consultant for railroads. We would go survey existing bridges that were going to be repaired or rebuilt. This same bridges were freight lines, however, since Amtrak leases these lines from the individual freight companies (i.e. Union Pacfic, BSF, CSXT, etc) they go across the same bridges. Needless to say I have had to be next to (or under the bridges) when the freight trains would pass and from someone that generally trusts engineering, I would NEVER take a train anywhere unless the line was fully devoted to passenger trains (mainly on east coast).
The bridges are at the verge of complete inadequacy and there are countless circumstances in which the piers/piles have been eroded/deteriorated to half of their cross sections... scary stuff.