From: nilknocgeo@earthlink.net   
      
   "Jishnu Mukerji"  wrote in message   
   news:4-udnT1effogxuLJnZ2dnUU7-cudnZ2d@giganews.com...   
   > On 12/1/2014 10:16 AM, hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com wrote:   
   >> On Monday, December 1, 2014 7:59:43 AM UTC-5, Stephen Sprunk wrote:   
   >>> True, but you can make the platforms longer or add more of them, to a   
   >>> point, before the tracks are fully utilized.  AFAIK, aside from a few   
   >>> commuter lines around NYC, there are _no_ lines in the US that are   
   >>> anywhere near that heavily loaded with passenger trains--and adding   
   >>> tracks there has special problems that don't generally apply.   
   >>   
   >> I don't know the numbers, but yesterday Amtrak added many cars to its NEC   
   >> trains, and also added extra trains (borrowing commuter equipment).   
   >> Would anyone know how many extra people they carried over Thanksgiving?   
   >>   
   >   
   > Just wait until the November performance report is posted on the Amtrak   
   > site. Then you can easily figure it out.   
      
   There are some upstate counties in New York where 85% of the rails have been   
   removed, according to one report I read several years ago.  The secondary   
   NYC line through Auburn has been cut, even though that line was used for   
   trains when the NYC mainline was blocked.  There is a famous case at   
   Thanksgiving in the 1960s when that happened, and I happen to know one man   
   who was on that train...it ran right by the prison.  What we lack today are   
   any backup lines which can handle things if the mainlines are full of oil   
   trains.  They have been abandoned.  I think the RRs figured that they never   
   would have any increase in traffic and planned accordingly.   
      
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