Talking to the Transit advocates at Portland Union Station Yesterday at the festivities, I finally learned what the problem is.
The Columbia River Bridge is good for only 30MPH. This speed limit restricts the throughput on that bridge which why the line is at capacity.
This is speculation on my part. I would say that one thing comment on, most of the rails out of the Portland area are single track lines. And the line north to Seattle in addition to a lot of local lumber mill traffic handles a lot of traffic. It was originally(I think) the connection for 4 railroads(Union Pacific,Southern Pacific, Great Northern , Northern Pacific, & Seattle Portland & Spokane). Currently UP & BNSF still use the line very heavily. BNSF because it is a low grade from Seattle to Spokane.
Amtrak(I suspect) is lucky to get what they can. It is much easier to own your own tracks than to try to negotiate for trackage rights.
Also FRA is real touchy about letting light rail and heavy freight mix on the same trackage. As a result you can not mix the two on any heavily used line.
Rgds IGN
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