Coming from Scotland I can tell you that you have it 10 times better than I did. From trains once an hour (if that) to buses that you could swear were non existant I think your system is pretty good.

I understand that there is always room for improvement, but this will never happen 100% when there is other factors to take into the equation.

Anyway, the CREATE funding is welcome. The most critical part of CREATE (Englewood Flyover) was funded through the HSR funds. This funds some other valuable bits. Unfortunately it does not fund the two other major passenger projects (One is Grand Crossing; the other is the extensive rearrangement of the Belt Railway corridor so that along with freight enhancements Metra Southwest Service has an exclusive passenger path leading into the Rock Island corridor and LaSalle Street Station, freeing up slots in Union Station.)

A real public-private partnership will require Amtrak or other government entity to own the second tracks on the private freight railroad’s right of way. Otherwise, the feds send money to upgrade the lines, and the layers of local governments will promptly lay their property taxes on any improvements.

While freight RR’s have been doing better in the last few years than they have in decades, as a whole they still do not make enough of a return on investment to pay for major capital improvements to increase capacity, moderize signaling, develop new terminals, etc. With the exception of a couple major routes leading east from west coast ports, and a few lines leading out of Wyoming coalfeilds, RRs have spent little to remove bottlenecks or raise speeds. Dispite historic high rail freight traffic levels, timber bridges don’t get replaced until they burn down and electrifacion remains a distant dream. On some single-track western routes, RR’s have been accused of de-marketing (i.e. not returning shippers pnone calls) low-value shipments like grain and lumber in favor of more lucative consumer goods. They won’t make engough additonal money to attract capital to double-track such lines.

Since rail is extremely energy-efficient compared to trucks, and can take trucks of the highways, I think there are clear public benefits to goverment funding to increase capacity and reduce transit times on the freight rail network.

Is there a good reason why the Tucson streetcar line turns so many corners? It seems like that would slow it down, and have a bigger impact to traffic than running straight through the grid with one or two turns.