Amtrak seeks to Dispatch Canadian National

My opinion: This dog won’t hunt. What Amtrak should offer is the going rate for time on the line.

Link: Amtrak seeks right to take over dispatching on poor-performing routes as part of new contract with CN

Brief, fair use quote:

The filing uses both 2019 data and hypothetical information to show how these calculations would work. In an example using the City of New Orleans — an all-CN route where the railroad earned an average of $518,996 per quarter in incentives in 2019 — a quarter in which the train hit 85% customer on-time performance with 600 minutes of host-railroad delays would earn incentives of $512,301.18. One which on-time performance was 75% and CN-caused delays totaled 950 minutes would result in a penalty of $157,227.98.

Colonel, wholly concur that this dog won't hunt. So far as I'm concerned, this proposal is down there with that Connect US coloring book that has the "fanatics a foamin'" over a possible NY-Scranton return of service - including relaying some 22 miles of track over the abandoned "Lackawanna Cutoff".

JB Hunt pays Warren a premium for performance that the latter considers worth his while. It's "circulated", but not confirmed as we are addressing bilateral agreements exempt from disclosure under FOIA, knowledge that Amtrak does have performance provisions as part of their existing contracts with the roads, but these payments are mere tokens and the roads have concluded "not worth their while".

Who in their right mind thinks that Amtrak would get to dispatch a route they have one (south of Carbondale) or two trains (north of Carbondale) a day in each direction on? If Amtrak made that request on a route with substantially more trains I would get it, but this is just laughable.

Maybe they're feeling emboldened by the new board picks and STB reaction to the Class 1's at those hearings....

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If Amtrak is a nationally owned company (or receives all of their funding from the federal government), then can they take over dispatching operations for other class Is, such as NS?

Mr. Pennsy, Amtrak is reportedly seeking to include the dispatch of the entire line, freight and passenger, over which Amtrak operates. That would mean the IC Chicago to New Orleans.

As I review the TRAINS article, it would suggest that Amtrak seeks this through a bilateral agreement, and not through enacted legislation. Unaffected would be the other Canadian National lines.

Is the fact that CN hasn't simply laughed them out of the office something to read into?

Or possibly, Mr. Matt W, the proposal is so absurd it does not warrant any kind of response.

All told Amtrak, if you want the trains to run on time, start paying up!

The "or else" would be filing a performance complaint with the STB, possibly forcing a solution onto the host railroad.

Amtrak has proposed three tiers of action in case of sustained poor performance:

Under the first tier, CN would be required to report to Amtrak the causes of delays, how they could have been avoided, and what actions could be taken to avoid a repeat of the issue.

Under the second tier, representatives of Amtrak or the STB would be required to sit alongside CN dispatchers to ensure that Amtrak's trains are given priority.

Under the third tier, Amtrak would be able to take over the dispatching of trains.

In my opinion, the first and second tiers are perfectly acceptable and should be standard for all railroads at all times. The third tier is completely ridiculous, especially when passenger trains only take up a small percent of the trains on a given corridor. In effect, CN would no longer have control over a line it owns. A better way is to massively fine the host railroads if on-time performance is consistently awful. See what the host railroads would do when ignoring Amtrak begins to cut into their profits.

Shortline614 wrote: ↑Tue May 31, 2022 4:10 pm Amtrak has proposed three tiers of action in case of sustained poor performance:

Under the first tier, CN would be required to report to Amtrak the causes of delays, how they could have been avoided, and what actions could be taken to avoid a repeat of the issue.

Under the second tier, representatives of Amtrak or the STB would be required to sit alongside CN dispatchers to ensure that Amtrak's trains are given priority.

Under the third tier, Amtrak would be able to take over the dispatching of trains.

In my opinion, the first and second tiers are perfectly acceptable and should be standard for all railroads at all times. The third tier is completely ridiculous, especially when passenger trains only take up a small percent of the trains on a given corridor. In effect, CN would no longer have control over a line it owns. A better way is to massively fine the host railroads if on-time performance is consistently awful. See what the host railroads would do when ignoring Amtrak begins to cut into their profits.

I would insert the fines between the second and third tier. If the dispatchers are being told to screw over Amtrak even while the representatives are there, then the fines will make the higher management notice -- tier 3. Tier 4 would be "it's obvious you're incompetent. We're taking over your line for our trains. The STB will be taking over the rest of your operations."

Is there any government agency that would have the authority to get CN to agree to big fines or to relinquish the authority to dispatch its own railroad?

The article seems to say that Amtrak is asking CN voluntarily to agree to these terms. What stick or carrot could Amtrak offer CN? If CN and Amtrak can't agree on a new agreement, it looks like an old one stays in place. So why would CN make a new agreement that seems unfavorable to them? Hopefully someone could enlighten us.
It also seems that with the current judicial climate, if some agency were to try to order the railroad to act more favorably toward Amtrak than it currently does, the federal courts, in particular the Supremes, would rule against Amtrak as trying to perform an illegal taking.

Had not thought about the possible fines. Make fines equal to the cost of training, wages, & benefits for the correct number of persons needed to keep the route fluid.

Is this simply Amtrak branching out into the contract dispatching business, and Canadian National considering if it is cheaper to pay Amtrak for dispatching than to keep its own employees? Amtrak already dispatches the ends of this route, Chicago Union Station and New Orleans Passenger Terminal, so it may have an economy of scale by filling in the middle. Canadian National is prohibited by United States regulation to dispatch U.S. routes from a Canadian office, even if it is cheaper and combined with other lines.