What are the organizational challenges in founding a new commuter

Doesn't Amtrak have a monopoly on passenger rail? If you're going to set up a separate service, you'll need their permission.

>>1019039
>Doesn't Amtrak have a monopoly on passenger rail?

No? There are lots of regional passenger rail services that aren't affiliated with Amtrak.

Let's assume Amtrak isn't a problem. This question is about regional passenger service, such as for commuters.

What I'm curious about is what the organizational nuts and bolts are with respect to things like how the railroads are incorporated, how their insurance coverage works and overlaps, regulatory issues involved in establishing passenger service, dealing with other railroads (i.e., rail leases and how they share lines in an efficient and safe way).

Like as an example, let's say you are looking to establish rail service from an outlying suburb to a major city, serving an existing station that's operated by a regional authority and served by multiple other carriers running different routes.

Suppose your surveys show there's a rail line used primarily by heavy industrial traffic that goes through the suburb and into the city that's just begging to be used for passenger service. Obviously you don't own the line and the freight RR isn't going to sell.

Putting aside whether it's a good idea (since, if it were, why hadn't any other established railroad done it yet?) what would need to happen to commence service?

Obvious things: Rolling stock, line leases, confirming the freight track can handle stock moving at passenger speeds, whether more track is needed for prioritizing passenger rail over freight, dealing with residential areas around the lines that will bitch about increased traffic...

What else would be a task involved in such an engagement?

Oil lobby
Automobile lobby
People getting mad at train noises
Airplane lobby

>>1019061
You wouldn't be able to do anything. A railroad is bound to accept your interchange freight, but only Amtrak can force them to allow passenger service and only if that railroad or its successor was part of the National Railroad Passenger Act.

This isn't euroland, partner.

>>1019132
Of course you could. You can lease line access. Every railroad does this and every railroad needs the income.

>>1019157
No, few railroads allow foreign crews to operate on their lines for any substanial distance.

The backbone of American railroading is the principle of interchange. You hand off cars or even through trains for other railroads to run on their network, but you don't lease their rail.

>>1019117
This. In Texas we have had rail options killed a bunch of times despite voters approving new lines.

>>1019186
So let's say your local government wants to set up a regional commuter rail system on currently active freight lines. Would they have to buy rolling stock and then contract its operation to the line owner?

What do NJTransit and Metra do?

>>1019957
>So let's say your local government wants to set up a regional commuter rail system on currently active freight lines...
The freight railroad could simply tell them "no," or they could offer to sell the rail to them, or they could offer to let them run on it, but that's fairly unlikely since railroads don't like to share. If they said no, you'd have to go to Amtrak and get them to initiate and run the service, but the state/local government would be the one paying for it.
>What do[es] NJTransit do?
They own old PRR and NYC rail and run on Amtrak owned rail on the NEC.

Metra is largely rail owned by currently functioning railroads, but the agreements to allow this were created in the 70s when freight railroads were still passenger railroads and there was a huge process to abandon passenger service. Basically they're grandfathered in.