April 16, 2024

The USA is expanding their public passenger rail system and folks have produced a map to examine the growth.

While this expansion is coming online, Amtrak has a fight on with freight rail companies not prioritizing Amtrak passenger rail.

One of the solutions put forward by unions and the NDP of making VIA Rail trains run on time is to give VIA priority over the freight trains on their tracks.

This would work if freight companies invested in rail expansion and twinning and if they cared to follow laws that were in place. But, CN and CPKC continue have so much political power that we cannot even get such a law in Canada that would give passenger rail priority.

When you compare the USA with Canada on passenger rail, you have to wonder if our government cares about rail at all.

• Canada has specific hours for personal driving to be included in total hours on the road
• USA does not have specific hours identified in law

The difference is that companies are pushing drivers to use personal hours to violate driving hours. The abuse of the personal conveyance or yard rule loopholes means that drivers are driving too much.

Unfortunately, the response from the government and employers is to try to enforce hours instead of looking at the real problem exposed by the implementation of EDLs: too low wages.

Drivers are being forced to break the rules and fudge the numbers to make ends meet because the wages did not grow in concert with the implementation of the EDLs.

Garney’s data showed a 2.8% decrease between 2018 and 2023 in violations of the rule that allows only 14 hours of consecutive service after coming on duty and a 25% increase in violations of the HOS rule that allows only 11 hours of driving within that 14-hour period. But during that time, there’s also been a 137% increase in false log violations, he said.