Amtrak Files STB Case Against Union Pacific

Amtrak wants the U.S. Surface Transportation board to order Union Pacific to give better handling to its New Orleans-Los Angeles Sunset Limited.

In a filing earlier this month, the passenger carries described the on-time performance of Nos. 1 and 2 as “abysmal” and blamed it on the operating practices of the host railroad.

According to Amtrak, delays occur most often when Amtrak is forced to follow a freight train that is too long to fit into existing passing sidings on the former Southern Pacific route.

Amtrak is seeking “damages and other relief” from UP. The case is the first of its kind to be brought under the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2008, which gave the STB authority to investigate passenger on-time performance issues and how to address them.

The Amtrak STB filing contends that during federal fiscal year 2022, which ended last September, the Sunset Limited averaged more than 15 instances of freight train interference per trip, resulting in an average of more than four hours of delays.

During FY2022, Train No. 1 had on-time performances of 40 percent, 24 percent, 10 percent, and 11 percent for each respective quarter of the fiscal year.

The corresponding figures for Train No. 2 were 40 percent, 35 percent, 11 percent, and 7 percent.

Amtrak said UP was responsible for 74.2 percent of the delays, while the passenger carrier was responsible for 20.8 percent of the delays. Third parties were blamed for the remaining 5.1 percent of delays.

The passenger carrier has suggested that federal regulators consider the case in two phases, starting with an investigative phase to determine the cause of delays and a remedial phase to determine possible damages and corrective action.

No Amtrak Long Distance Train Met FRA OT Threshold During the First Quarter of 2022

The Federal Railroad Administration reported that during the first quarter of 2022 no Amtrak long-distance train met the 80 percent on-time performance mark.

The FRA report said just 16 of Amtrak’s 43 routes met the 80 percent threshold.

The agency measures on-time performance, train delays, customer service, financial performance and public benefits.

The best Amtrak route for on-time performance was the Chicago-Milwaukee Hiawatha Service, which posted a rate of 95 percent. The worst was the Auto Train at 24.2 percent.

Other high performers included the Ethan Allen (93.3 percent) and Keystone Service (93.2) percent). Other low performers included the Capitol Limited (35.0 percent), and Sunset Limited (40.0 percent).

Eight long-distance trains rated at less than 50 percent with the best performance being turned in by the City of New Orleans at 79.9 percent, just below the FRA’s 80 percent threshold.

The FRA defines on time as no later than 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time.

The first quarter report found Amtrak trains experienced 1.3 million minutes of delay during the quarter.

Freight train interference was the most common source of delay during the quarter, accounting for 299,252 minutes (22 percent) of total delay minutes. That was a 12 percent increase over the fourth quarter of 2021.

Freight train interference on Union Pacific was 84,000 minutes followed by Norfolk Southern (69,116 minutes), BNSF (69,079 minutes), and CSX (54,810 minutes).

Other significant causes of delay were unused recovery time, passenger train interference and slow orders.

The FRA report said passengers rated the majority of routes (31 of 41) as 80 percent or higher in overall satisfaction.

The only route falling below 70 percent passenger satisfaction was the Auto Train.

System-wide, Amtrak earned $672 million in adjusted operating revenue and incurred $823 million in fully allocated operating expenses, achieving a cost recovery ratio of 82 percent, the FRA report said.

Routes that operated with high cost-recovery ratios include the Auto Train (131 percent), Illini/Saluki (124 percent), Northeast Regional (115 percent), and Hiawatha (114 percent).

Ridership was up 7 percent to 5.5 million in the first quarter compared with the fourth quarter or 2021.

The highest ridership was reported by Northeast Regional (1,706,419 riders), Acela Express (478,441 riders), and Pacific Surfliner (349,304 riders).

The FRA report said during federal fiscal year 2021, which ended on Sept. 30, 12.4 percent of Amtrak trips included a connection to another route: 6.4 percent of Northeast Corridor trains, 16.6 percent of State-supported trains, and 17.7 percent of long distance trains.

Of all multi-segment Amtrak trips, 2 percent included a missed connection, with the highest number on the San Joaquins, Pacific Surfliner, and Southwest Chief routes.

In FY2021, Amtrak served 67,835 riders (0.56 percent of all riders) in areas not well-served by other modes of intercity transportation, “such as air or intercity buses.

RPA Says Amtrak Service is Deteriorating

Amtrak service in recent weeks has shown marked deterioration, the Rail Passengers Association said on its website last week.

RPA said on-time performance system-wide has declined due to freight train interference and slow orders.

Another factor has been mechanical breakdowns of Amtrak equipment that has delayed trains at their originating terminals and while en route.

The RPA post said that during March on-time performance fell to 21 percent. The Chicago-Washington Capitol Limited slipped to 19.9 percent while the New York-Miami Silver Star was at 16.9 percent and the New Orleans Sunset Limited at 17.8 percent.

RPA said its members have also complained about problems with the reservations system, particularly reaching Amtrak call centers.

Canadians Were Best Amtrak Hosts in 2021

Amtrak handed out report cards this week to its host railroads for their ability to keep passenger trains on time during 2021.

The class leaders were Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, which both received A grades.

Other Class 1 host railroads included BNSF, B+; CSX, B; Union Pacific, C+; and Norfolk Southern, D-. 

It was the sixth consecutive years that CP has led the class in report card grades.

Amtrak said freight train interference caused nearly 900,000 delay minutes during 2021.

Federal Railroad Administration standards are that for a train to considered on-time that 80 percent of its passengers must arrive at their destination within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.

Only one of Amtrak’s long-distance trains, the City of New Orleans (Chicago-New Orleans), met the FRA criteria. It ran on time 83 percent of the time.

The next best was the New York-Savannah, Georgia, Palmetto, which was on-time 62 percent of the time.

The worst were the Sunset Limited and Capitol Limited, which were on time just 28 percent of the time.  

More than half of the state-supported corridor routes fell below FRA standards for on-time performance.

The worst was the Cascades route between Vancouver, British Columbia, and Eugene, Oregon, via Seattle and Portland, which had a 57 percent on-time performance.

Leading state corridors was Hiawatha Service (Chicago-Milwaukee) at 95 percent on time.

The Hiawathas are hosted primarily by Canadian Pacific, which Amtrak honored in a short ceremony on Tuesday at Chicago Union Station.

Amtrak President Stephen Gardner presented CP President and CEO Keith Creel with an award recognizing the carrier’s A grade on Amtrak report cards.

Among the Class 1 hosts, NS has struggled the most with its grades since 2018, ranging from F to C.

CN has shown the most improvement going from a D- in 2018 to an A last year.

The Amtrak report cards can be read at http://media.amtrak.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Host-Railroad-Report-Card-2021-Final-v2.pdf

3 Trains Were Most Delayed, FRA Says

Three Amtrak trains led the list of most delayed trains during the fourth quarter of 2021, the Federal Railroad Administration said on Monday.

In a report showing performance and service quality of intercity passenger train operations, the Cardinal (Chicago-New York), Sunset Limited (New Orleans-Los Angeles) and Texas Eagle (Chicago-San Antonio) had the most delays.

The FRA used standards and metrics that it issued in November 2020 to compile the report.

The agency found Amtrak trains experienced more than 1.2 million minutes of delay during the fourth quarter, up 37 percent from the previous quarter.

Delays system-wide rose 33 percent at 8,168,324 train-miles. The FRA rules track delays by 40 categories, but the top three during the fourth quarter were those attributed to a host railroad, those attributed to Amtrak and those attributed to a third party. The latter includes weather-related delays.

The FRA said freight train interference accounted for 22 percent of delay minutes, an increase of 36 percent from the previous quarter.

Delays by train included the Cardinal (87,123 minutes), Sunset Limited (67,300 minutes), and Texas Eagle (42,965 minutes).

The report also found Amtrak ridership increased 48 percent during the fourth quarter to 5.1 million passengers.

Durbin Introduces Bill to Allow Amtrak to Sue Railroads

A U.S. senator from Illinois has introduced legislation that would permit Amtrak to sue freight railroads to enforce its statutory preference.

Senator Richard Durbin said in news release that he introduced the bill because of chronic delays incurred by Amtrak’s trains operating on Canadian National-owned tracks between Chicago and Carbondale, Illinois.

The news release did not provide details as to what standards would be used to justify a lawsuit by Amtrak against a host railroad.

“By empowering Amtrak to hold the freight railroads accountable when they don’t follow the law, we can improve Amtrak on-time performance and save taxpayer dollars,” Durbin said in a statement. “For too long, we’ve seen on-time performance decline as a result of freight interference. The people of Illinois — and Amtrak riders nationwide — deserve assurance that they can arrive at their destination in a safe and timely manner.”

Amtrak President Richard Anderson has recently increased his criticism of host railroads and is calling for a legally-binding enforcement mechanism.

Report Says Better OT Could Save Amtrak Money

An improvement of 5 percent in on-time performance on all routes could save Amtrak $12.1 million a year the carrier’s Office of Inspector General said this week.

That would include $8.2 million in reduced costs and $3.9 million in increased revenue, the OIG officials said in a news release.

“In the longer term, if OTP on long-distance routes could improve to 75 percent and be sustained at that level for at least a year, the company could realize an estimated $41.9 million per year in cost savings, and a one-time savings of $336 million by reducing equipment replacement needs,” the OIG reported.

The OIG said Amtrak doesn’t fully and systematically measure the impact of poor OTP, resulting in limited data to use to determine consequences.

In its report, the OIG recommended Amtrak update its methods of measuring on-time performance so that it can more reliably determine the financial impact that late trains have on the railroad.

In a response, Amtrak said it agreed with OIG’s findings and recommendation.

The carrier said poor on-time performance is primarily driven by delays caused by its host railroads.

The Amtrak OIG’s findings were in addition to savings that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s OIG found were possible if Amtrak improved on-time performance.

The Amtrak OIG report “confirm late trains impact every aspect of our operations, from equipment usage and staffing, to trip-time competitiveness and reliability for our customers,” said Dennis Newman, Amtrak executive vice president of strategy and planning, in a statement.

“Extrapolating the results over a five-year period, there is more than $1 billion denied to our state and federal investors because Amtrak customers are not getting the reliable service they deserve and are lawfully entitled to receive,” Newman added.

In a releated development Amtrak released its annual report card that grades each of the six Class I host railroads based on delays caused to Amtrak trains over the past year.

For 2018, Amtrak gave the Class Is’ a “C” average based on the “passenger experience” of late trains and on-time arrivals.

Amtrak Grades Host Railroads for OT Performance

Amtrak’s latest host railroads “report card” was a mixed bag ranging an A for Canadian Pacific to an F to Norfolk Southern.

The national passenger carrier grades its host railroads for how well it perceives they are doing at dispatching its trains on time.

Canadian Pacific received the only A grade, which Amtrak said means most of its trains arrived on time at their destinations.

Other grades included a B for BNSF, a B- for CSX and Union Pacific and a D- for Canadian National.

Amtrak said an A grade means most passengers arrive on time; a B means passengers on some routes are late; a C means many passengers are very late; a D means most passengers are very late and an F means the majority of passengers are severely late.

The carrier said its host freight railroads are the “single largest cause of delays to Amtrak customers,” amounting to 1.2 million minutes last year.

AAR Appeals to U.S. High Court

The Association of American Railroads is again asking a court to invalidate a rule making process pertaining to on-time standards for Amtrak trains.

The railroad trade association last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court decision issued last summer that upheld a federal law allowing Amtrak and the Federal Railroad Administration to set on-time standards for the carrier’s host railroads.

The 2-1 decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit found that a lower court erred in invalidating parts of the 2008 Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act.

The appeals court agreed that the U.S. Surface Transportation Board can set and enforce on-time standards.

AAR took its appeal to the Supreme Court after the full DC Circuit Court of Appeals declined to review the decision by the three-judge panel.

The trade group has argued that Amtrak is a for-profit corporation and giving it authority to work with the FRA to set OTP standards gives it an unfair competitive advantage over its host railroads.

That interpretation gained currency when the Eighth Circuit interpreted the law as meaning that Amtrak “competes” with its host railroads for track space.

Amendment Seeks Amtrak OT Study

An amendment directing Amtrak’s inspector general to update an earlier audit of Amtrak’s on-time performance has been approved by the U.S. Senate.

The amendment was sponsored by Senator Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and approved as part of appropriations legislation being considered by the Senate.

In a news release, Durbin said the audit’s objective is to assess the financial impact of Amtrak’s on-time performance.

Durbin noted that during 2017 Amtrak’s long-distance trains were on time at stations just 45 percent of the time. Amtrak trains incurred more than 17,000 hours of delay due to freight trains on host railroads, which was a 35 percent increase over 2016.

“On-time performance has a direct impact on the number of people who ride Amtrak trains, how frequently they use them and how much they use them,” Durbin said on the Senate floor.

Amtrak said in a statement that it appreciates the bipartisan effort to bring more transparency to this topic.

“On-time performance is one of the biggest factors in Amtrak customer satisfaction and has been an ongoing challenge,” the Amtrak statement said. “We look forward to the report from the inspector general.”