With rights of way rigidly confined to shared use of existing railroad tracks, passenger train services must make the best of rights of way that are not owned or controlled by the passenger service providers. Rights of way owned by, and developed to serve the needs of freight railroad companies, are not adaptable to passenger services without significant conflict and inefficiencies. Although passenger rail services may avoid the significant expenses of acquiring and developing their own rights of way and track systems by leasing access to existing railroad tracks, the quality and safety of passenger services on shared track systems are inherently limited. In some cases, the low quality and hazardous conditions that prevail on passenger rail systems do not justify continuing operations on railroad rights of way or track systems.
Most railroad rights of way would accommodate the construction of monorail systems that could both separate passenger traffic from freight train tracks, and provide high quality passenger service beyond the limitations of the steel rail trains and technology of freight railroad systems. Such a complete separation of passenger and freight tracks could eliminate 100% of the danger and safety threats afflicting current passenger train operations on existing train tracks.
