This topic (expanding and upgrading the US rail network) gets brought up fairly frequently on the oil board I post at now and again. This is the latest thread on the topic, basically an article citing some truly nasty behind the scenes bureaucratic and political infighting over this. One faction (much of the bureaucracy) is basically owned outright by the pro car interests, and vehmently rejects any expansion or upgrade to the rail network. They actually went so far as to delete an entire approved section of their latest report which strongly recommended building and rebuilding US railways.
http://p088.ezboard.com/fdownstreamventurespetroleummarkets.showMessage?topicID=21845.topic
http://p088.ezboard.com/fdownstreamventurespetroleummarkets.showMessage?topicID=21845.topic
