The Dallas Morning News Bidness (yes, that's how we say it in Texas) Section had a feature article on how the CSX Acca Yard in Richmond, VA. is holding up Amtrak trains along the eastern seaboard due to congestion..... It mentions that CSX has been aware of the bottleneck for a long time, but failed to invest in track upgrades, which is killing them now that traffic is increasing - for both Amtrak and their own frieghts. Not only are ther 2-25 more trains a day than the yard is designed for, but they tend to be 5 or 10 cars longer. They imply this requires some doubling of trains, which further slows down switching, which leaves trains out on the main, which......da da da da da. It then goes on to note that despite the severity of the problem, UPS officials note that problems out west, particularly on the UP cause them far more problems..... I doubt the railroads will ever make general news, unless it is something bad, and at least slowdowns are better articles than "turnover" articles, ie, derailments.
See, CSX *plans* for a certain percentage of their trains to derail along their route, so they're sure to have congestion if all of them actually make it to their terminal at the end of the day. Don't worry, CSX new operating plan "ONE" will end up shedding most of this excess traffic to NS or trucks, so this won't be a problem for very long!
Sorry, Brian, but some of us Atlas refugees aren't used to dozens of forums in which to bury material and will persist in putting it on the N scale forum as that's where we're used to seeing it. Don't worry, we'll get out of your hair once the Atlas forums go back up!
