I don't follow. You're comparing the un-bought Raton route with a stretch where New York State owned tracks Albany-Schenectady? I thought Amtrak has owned that segment post-Conrail? So what was NY State doing? Who paid taxes on it then, or now? Anyway, the tracks were never abandoned and the trains still run there.
You don't follow mainly because your perception of facts about the Empire Corridor ownership are entirely wrong. North of Poughkeepsie it was and is still owned by CSX. What has changed last years is that NY State has leased it for a limited number of years with the right to dispatch and maintain, and CSX still retains full trackage rights.
New York State has never owned that piece of track and still does not. Naturally CSX (and before that Conrail) was paying taxes, and if it had allowed the addition of a track its taxes would have gone up and so it disallowed such, until NY State changed its tax laws, much to the chagrin of the local communities, which were milking CSX and hoping to milk them some more.
I was never talking about north of Poughkeepsie. So it's unkindof you to say that MY facts are "entirely wrong".
Because I was
quoting you: "New York … thus delayed the double tracking of
the Albany-Schenectady section." (Emphasis added.) Which
segment I still say is Amtrak-owned now.
You can say it all you want, but that is not going to make it true. you can have an opinion but you cannot just make up facts.
As it turns out Albany to Schenectady is indeed north of Poughkeepsie and is in the section Poughkeepsie - Hoffmans (for reference as you read the references below). Hoffmans is the point west of Schenectady where the line from Albany joins the CSX main from Selkirk (Suggest open up a map and locate those locations on it to get your bearings straight). So yes, indeed you were entirely wrong.
Go and look at the
list of properties owned by Amtrak listed by Amtrak on their web page .
Amtrak has never owned much of anything except the Rensselaer shops and perhaps some station trackage in the Albany area though it has had various agreements in place with CSX to maintain and dispatch the trackage associated with the station and the Boston connection from ALB to the connection with CSX. Amtrak has had various agreements giving Amtrak responsibility for maintenance and dispatching of the Albany - Schenectady section. But the property was and still is owned by CSX, and CSX and before that Conrail, PC and NYC have been responsible for paying taxes on it, whether you like it or not. Trust me I have been involved in pushing for the changes that are about to be put in place with the second main construction there for the last 15 years with the ESPA folks. It was initially thwarted for many years due to this tax issue.
Incidentally on the same Amtrak page they say:
In December 2012, Amtrak and CSX Transportation reached an agreement for Amtrak to operate and maintain approximately 94 miles of the Empire Corridor in New York between Poughkeepsie, New York, and Hoffmans (near Schenectady).
This includes the section Albany - Schenectady that you erroneously claim is owned by Amtrak. This is the lease agreement that I mentioned in the earlier post, which set you off on a long incoherent rant.
This Amtrak Press Release spells it all out quite clearly including projects that were facilitated by this lease agreement:
Also refer to the
Wikipedia article on the Empire Corridor and
the Amtrak article on Wikipedia for reference, though I did not want to quote those since parts of them are probably edited by me. Not cool to quote yourself to prove a point
So the bottom line is that the Raton situation is actually very similar to what we had at the Poughkeepsie - Hoffmans section of the Empire Corridor before the lease came into effect, as I was saying before. New York State handled it well and professionally. New Mexico State apparently does not care enough to handle it in a way that would result in what we want, and perhaps are inclined to scapegoat Amtrak and BNSF in a battle of rumors and innuendos as it appears.
I'm wildly confused at the point you're trying to make. Jishnu was talking about CSX owned track. The fact that down the line somewhere is some Amtrak owned track doesn't seem to be relevant.
Maybe spend less time arguing about how right you are and more time trying to make your point clearly and you'll have better success.
You are confused indeed. See his Comment #503. It's about "Albany-Schenectady". That is Amtrak-owned, not CSX.
I never mentioned CSX tracks when I was trying to sort out his point.
Then he jumped to talking about above Poughkeepsie, not Amtrak-owned. Sorry that he seems to have confused you, and I guess himself, with that switcheroo.
You really need to learn a little bit more about the geography and the relevant facts before trying to sort out anything, and trying to act oh so unconfused
:help: :hi:
I'm wildly confused at the point you're trying to make. Jishnu was talking about CSX owned track. The fact that down the line somewhere is some Amtrak owned track doesn't seem to be relevant.
There is no Amtrak owned track where it is being claimed there is. That is where the error in claimed facts lies. The property is still CSX owned.
