Amtrak FOIA Response on Locomotive Reliability

A while back I requested reliability data on the Siemens fleet from Amtrak thru a FOIA request.

Here's their response:

This letter acknowledges the receipt of your FOIA request dated 01-02-23 requesting Dispatch reliability information for all locomotive fleets and power cars, both detailed and grouped by region/corridor/route showing the number of delays attributed to faults/failures, number of delay minutes/events attributed to enroute faults/failures, number of delay minutes/events requiring substitute equipment to be provided on day of departure from a terminal point. (Date Range for Record Search: From 11/01/2018 To 10/31/2022).


This request has been issued tracking number 23-FOI-00075. Please reference this number in all correspondence and communications with this office.

We do not have this information as you requested it in a report or data file. We would need to gather this information and create this from scratch, which the FOIA does not require us to do. Therefore, we have no records responsive to your request and are closing this file.

Pursuant to Amtrak’s FOIA regulations (49 CFR 701.10), if you do not agree with Amtrak’s decision, you may file an appeal with Eleanor D. Acheson, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, within ninety days (90) of the date of this letter, specifying the relevant facts and the basis for your appeal. Your appeal may be mailed to Ms. Acheson’s attention: National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Law Department, One Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001. The President and CEO of Amtrak has delegated authority to the General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for the rules and compliance to the FOIA.



Thank you,

FOIA Officer

Either Amtrak is lying, or they are truly incompetent if they don't track this type of data....

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More likely they don't have that info grouped exactly as you requested, and their FOIA attorney believes that is sufficient justification not to respond to what they see as a fishing expedition.

I’m sure they don’t have that information to the level of detail you requested. Narrow your request to MDBF for each equipment type and you’ll likely get a better response.

My former employer (not Amtrak) did not track reliability to the level of detail you requested. I would go out on a limb and say that most, if not all, passenger railroads track MDBF, and delay minutes attributable to general delay classifications (“mechanical”) and nothing more. Frankly, the details you are looking for aren’t terribly helpful to the people running the trains. They need to know how frequently a particular equipment type breaks down in a way that results in train delays, and they need to track what the actual failure was. They don’t care what route the delays occurred on, and they certainly don’t care whether substitute equipment needed to be provided. It broke down and caused a delay.

Jim

Conductors are made to fill out pretty detailed delay reports. More than one conductor has been called on the carpet for poor time keeping or the use of a wrong code.