Modern American Railroads

The One Tiny Law That Keeps Amtrak Terrible
Wendover Productions

This video gives a good overview of the American railroad industry. The business about Amtrak is like icing on the cake, or the derby on the gorilla's head. He might have a point, enforcing the law might improve Amtrak service, but I doubt whether it is ever going to make a significant impact. One percent of Amtrak's $2 billion annual budget is a nit compared to 1% of the trillion dollar defense budget. You just can't buy as much graft with little numbers like that, which means you aren't going to convince Congress to do anything about it.

Just getting the railroads to start maintaining tracks and equipment would be a good thing. If self driving cars (as Tesla is demonstrating) become common, all transportation is liable to suffer. Traffic jams won't matter because you will be able to amuse yourself with work or games or sleep while you are waiting to be delivered to your destination. So what if your commute takes an extra hour? You can play video games while you ride in your pod. Commute in an RV and you will never have to go home, you can just get on the beltway when you get off work and have yourself driven around the beltway a couple of times until it's time to report to your cubicle in the morning.

Since the third world has figured out to make stuff, the only things that make big money in this country now are the defense industry and cutting edge electronics. All the other businesses are scrambling to figure out how to keep making money. A few people are innovating on a small scale, but most are looking to cut costs one way or another.