[This was the 1st day Amtrak’s high speed train on a very old Freight train track.]
Yikes
Very old is an oxymoron in the west. And tracks are invariably owned by freiht, the only existing private railroads. They do OK but lesser-used branches can be not so well cared for. Wonder if this is one of those.
If that’s what was done, whoever decided to skip the roadbed portion of high speed rail and move straight to the “high speed” part ought to be put away for life. The Shinkansen system in Japan, for example, is a completely separate and specially constructed rail line. And it’s as smooth as riding on air.