They cope with scheduling by, 1, making the trains longer and, 2, running the bulk freight behind schedule when there is a conflict.

Its a self-fulfilling prophecy. The major transport task is time-insensitive, weight-charge-sensitive freight. Ergo, if you can save enough money to trim down the charge per ton at the cost of sometimes running half a day behind schedule, that's a good swap. But then you have a rail network that cannot run passenger trains at full speed because they are giving way to a late running coal train.

Suppose you have an Express and a bulk freight running eastbound, and another pair of the same running westbound. The bulk freights hold, one of the Express switches to the bulk freight line, the Express pass, then the bulk freights pass.

Hit the capacity limits for that set-up, and shift to a two-way Express/Local and bi-directional bulk freight line.

Hit the capacity limits for that set-up, and shift to two way Express-Only and two way Local/Bulk.

And for most ROW in the US, four tracks and they are built out.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

A ray of hope on the freight front is EU-wide cooperation. The most profitable distance for railfreight happens to be a range (say around 800 km) that would cross most European borders. But borders are the main barriers, as I detailed in richardk's high speed thread. France had problematic rail borders with Britain, Spain -- and Germany, where the two biggest rail technology rivals kept blocking access by each other. But in the last few years they began to cooperate better, say the introduction and mutual acceptance of dual-system locos. On the medium term, the Spanish re-gauging plan should help to increase traffic there too. As for Britain, solving the misery of the Eurotunnel freight transit would need political will (either pushing through SNCF acceptance of Eurotunnel-run services on its lines, or state involvement in Eurotunnel).

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

It is true that focus on TGV has damaged the inter-regional express trains, but in many regions, it has boosted the development of local express trains (TER) with schedules coordinated with TGV.

I am a regular TGV user since 1981 and I still find it a fantastic way to travel. The 3 hours limit is not absolute: I also use TGV to go from Lyon to Brussels and back, which takes a little less than 4 hours. Compared to flying to there (around 3 hours from city centre to city centre), it's much more comfortable and reliable, with plenty of time to work or relax.

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet