Railroad Forums 

  • SELECTED ON-TIME PERFORMANCE 9/1/19 THROUGH 9/30/19

  • Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.
Discussion related to Amtrak also known as the National Railroad Passenger Corp.

Moderators: GirlOnTheTrain, mtuandrew, Tadman

 #1521567  by shlustig
 
Results for this period are:

TOTAL TRAINS = 1207

ON TIME = 458 (38%)

LATE = 749 (62%)

AVERAGE DELAY = 47"

Of the late trains:
49% were 29" or less late;
25% were 30" to 59" late;
16% were 1' to 2' late;
9% were more than 2' late;
and 1% had no arrival time shown.

BY ROUTE, WITH ON-TIME % AND AVERAGE DELAY:

CAPITOL LIMITED
#29 - 27% - 1' 07"
#30 - 20% - 1' 19"

CARDINAL (WAS)
#51 - 85% - 1' 41"
#50 - 15% - 49"

PENNSYLVANIAN
#43 - 47% - 25"
#42 - 60% - 10"

LAKE SHORE LIMITED
#49 - 17% - 1' 01"
#48 - 63% - 44"

LAKE SHORE LIMITED (BOSTON / ALBANY)
#449 - 70% - 24"
#448 - 20% - 57"

CITY OF NEW ORLEANS
#59 - 93% - 26"
#58 - 77% - 47"

CRESCENT (WAS)
#19 - 3% - 1' 10"
#20 - 20% - 1' 15"

DETROIT CORRIDOR
(W) - 11% - 44"
(E) - 8% - 51"

ST. LOUIS CORRIDOR
(W) - 57% - 21"
(E) - 51% - 54"

BUFFALO CORRIDOR
(W) - 7% - 33"
(E) - 77% - 33"

KANSAS CITY CORRIDOR
(W) - 18% - 55"
(E) - 14% - 59"


Nearly a full complement of trains was reviewed in this period, the exceptions chiefly due to programmed trackwork on the STL Corridor and to operational problems on the KCY Corridor.

Services which showed improvement in both measured categories include the eastbound Cardinal and Pennsylvanian, the northbound City of New Orleans and Crescent, the westbound STL and BUF Corridors, and both directions of the Lake Shore Limited and Capitol Limited.

While this period showed some overall improvement, the short corridors are responsible for 65% of the total delay minutes in the period. Given the amounts of money which have been dedicated to improving the performance of these routes, the return on investment is less than acceptable and there is no evidence of any effort to correct the deficiencies. Both the eastbound DET and the westbound BUF Corridors perform at less than 10% OT.

That senior management accepts such a low level of performance is indicative of the basic problem that exists on the corporate level.

In keeping with my calculations being based on timetable times with no grace period being allowed, you will be able to see how the grace period utilized by Amtrak in its reporting skews the results as this period reflects September as will the Amtrak figures.

In answer to a query as to why only final terminals are used in this survey, given the amounts of padding (aka: Amtrak recovery time) which can be found in most schedules near the final terminals the delays would be greater if mid-point locations were used.

To address a query about the BUF Corridor, a main reason for the disproportionate figures eastbound vs. westbound lies in the dwell time at ALB as eastbound trains have extended dwell times compared to the westbound trains. Apparently, it is deemed more important to get to NYP on time than to get to upstate stations OT.