U.S. Department

of Transportation

Federal Railroad

Administration

DEC 17 2008

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd

Chairman

Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Mr. Chairman:

The Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies

Appropriations Act, 2008 (Division K of Pub. L. 110-161) requires the Federal Railroad

Administrator to "submit a report, and quarterly reports thereafter, to the House and

Senate Committees on Appropriations detailing the Administrator's efforts at improving

the on-time performance of Amtrak intercity rail service operating on non-Amtrak owned

property. Such reports shall compare the most recent actual on-time performance data to

pre-established on-time performance goals that the Administrator shall set for each rail

service, identified by route. Such reports shall also include whatever other information

and data regarding the on-time performance of Amtrak trains the Administrator deems to

be appropriate."

I am pleased to submit the fourth report in accordance with this requirement. I hope that

the information contained in the enclosed report will assist the Committee in its work.

Identical letters have been sent to the Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on

Appropriations, and to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on

Appropriations.

Sincerely,

1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590

0~~ Clifford C. Y

Acting Administrator

Enclosures
January 1,2009

Fourth Report on Amtrak On-Time Performance

Submitted by the Federal Railroad Acting Administrator

Under Division K of Public Law 110-161

This report includes two sections: (1) an update on recent Federal Railroad

Administration (FRA) efforts to catalyze improvements in Amtrak's on-time

petformance (OTP); and (2) in keeping with the FRA's October 1, 2008 OTP report, an

update on Amtrak OTP results and performance against FRA established goals.

(1) Recent OTP Improvement Actions

Southeast Corridor. In FY 2008, Amtrak benefited from reductions in freight train

interference and slow orders as a result of the Southeast (1-95) Corridor Performance

Improvement Plan, which the FRA required of Amtrak management as part of the Fiscal

Year (FY) 2007 Grant Agreement between the FRA and Amtrak. During FY 2008, CSX

freight train interference delays affecting Amtrak's Southeast Corridor trains dropped

below two minutes per 100 train-miles for the last quarter of the fiscal year. CSX slow

order delays along the corridor were also reduced throughout FY 2008; for example,

September 2008 slow orders were 36 percent lower than the previous year.

These reductions in delays contributed to OTP improvements to Amtrak trains along the

Southeast Corridor. For example, the Auto Train's FY 2008 endpoint OTP improved by

19.8 percentage points year-over-year and achieved a percent on time of 81.9 percent,

surpassing the target OTP threshold of 80 percent agreed upon by Amtrak and CSX. The

OTP of the other Southeast COlTidor trains improved by 21.2 percentage points compared

to 2007 and had an overall combined on-time performance of 50.5 percent in FY 2008.

Further OTP improvements on the Southeast Corridor will depend on CSX's ability to

continue reducing delays and applying strategies that have been successful in improving

the Auto Train's operation to the other Amtrak trains along the corridor.

California Zephyr. The Union Pacific Railroad (UP) and Amtrak continue to

implement their 2007 agreement to reduce delays on UP's portion of the California

Zephyr, which extends from Denver, Colorado to Emeryville, California. Freight train

interference delays affecting this portion of the route have recently decreased

significantly as have slow order delays. As Amtrak and UP work toward further delay

reductions on the Zephyr, Amtrak intends to continue incrementally removing time from

the route's schedule that was added on a temporary basis when the agreement with UP

was initially formed.

Complementing these efforts, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad (BNSF) has

been actively working with Amtrak to implement a performance improvement plan on

the Chicago, Illinois to Denver, Colorado portion of the route.

Additional Performance Improvement Programs. In keeping with Secretary Mary E.

Peters' request of April 16, 2008 (described in our May 8, 2008 OTP report), Amtrak and

UP have agreed to implement a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) on the Chicago-St.

Louis corridor. The PIP along this corridor impacts Amtrak's Lincoln Service, which

provides four daily roundtrips between Chicago, Illinois and St. Louis, Missouri, as well

as the once daily Texas Eagle, which traverses the corridor as part of its route between

Chicago, Illinois and San Antonio, Texas. Amtrak and UP met to initiate their PIP in
early November 2008. Amtrak has now identified and is making progress on a PIP for at

least one route with each of the major c1ass-I host railroads. A complete list of these PIP

routes follows:

• CSX: Southeast Corridor (ongoing initiative, described above)

• NS: Chicago-Porter, Indiana

• CP: Adirondack (Schenectady, New York-Rouses Point, New York)

• CN: Chicago-Carbondale, Illinois

• BNSF: California Zephyr (the Chicago-Denver portion of the route l

)

• UP: Chicago-St. Louis, Missouri

Other Recent OTP Developments. The emphasis on Amtrak's OTP that has emerged

through Secretary Peters' PIP initiative, the FRA's facilitation of improvement plans,

Congressional OTP Reports, and the recent report from the U.S. Department of

Transportation's Office of Inspector General (OlG) entitled "Root Causes of Amtrak

Delays," (http://www.oig.dot.gov/item.jsp?id=2356) in conjunction with Amtrak's own

efforts, has led to recent significant OTP improvements on certain host railroads.

Norfolk Southern (NS) in recent months has worked to substantially reduce delays to

Amtrak trains across their system. Amtrak observed a 59 percent year-over-year

reduction in NS freight train interference (FTI) delays in November 2008. Amtrak has

observed similar results from UP as it has heightened its focus on reducing FTI delays

across its system as well. At the same time, Amtrak continues to experience significant

delays from host railroad Canadian National (CN), which among Amtrak's host railroads

had the highest FTI delays in November 2008; three times greater than the next highest

host railroad.

(2) Goals and Route Performance

Attachment A contains updated OTP statistics for all Amtrak routes for FY 2008. As the

attachment illustrates, just over half the routes (21) had improvements in OTP (in terms

of both improved percent on time and no decrease in effective speed) in FY 2008. Of

those routes experiencing OTP improvement, a total of nine (five corridor-type and four

long-distance trains) met or surpassed their FY 2008 OTP target.

Percent on time across the entire Amtrak system in FY 2008 was 71.2 percent, an

increase of 2.6 percentage points over the previous year. This modest increase was

largely driven by a 13 percent increase, year-over-year, in endpoint on time arrivals

among long distance routes. Despite the noticeable increase in long distance OTP, these

routes collectively produced a meager percent on time of 54.2 percent in FY 2008.

Percent on time along the Northeast Corridor in FY 2008 was 78.9 percent, a 3.1 percent

decline from FY 2007, while the other corridor-type routes had an increase of 3.1

percent over the previous year for an overall percent on time of 70.8 percent in FY 2008.

In terms of the 16 routes identified for performance improvement plans, nine experienced

an improvement in OTP in FY 2008. Among the group, the Carolinian and Adirondack

were the only corridor-type routes (out of seven) with improved OTP, while the City of

New Orleans and Texas Eagle were the only long distance trains (out of nine) with a

decline in OTP. The City ofNew Orleans, which had a relatively high performance base

in FY 2007, suffered the biggest OTP decline in FY 2008 within the Amtrak system (a

I On the segment of the California Zephyr between Denver and the San Francisco Bay Area, the UP is the

host railroad; OTP efforts on the UP segment are described further above.
decline of 24 percentage points). Among the long distance routes with PIPs, two trains,

the Auto Train and Silver Meteor, met or surpassed their FY 2008 OTP targets while

none of the corridor-type services with PIPs attained their FY 2008 OTP targets.
Attachment A

Amtrak On-Time Performance: FY 2008

Year-End Totals for Fiscal Year 2008

Test 2:

Constant or ./ Test I: Beller

Indicates Higher Percent On Time Effective

both tests YTn - Sent. 2008 vs. YTn - Sent. 2007 Speed were met Proposed % Variance Change in IVIPH

for OTP FY08 % % Change Target from FY08 rrom October

Progress On Time from FY07 for FY08 Tar{!ct 2007 Baseline

Northeast Corridor Service (Goal proposedjor FY 2012: 95%)

Acela I I 84.5% (3.2%) I 89.2% (4.7%) I (0.4)

Reeional Service I I 75.8% (3.0%) 81.4% (5.6%) I (0.3)

Other Corridor Services (Goal proposedfor FY 2012: 90%. Minimum target proposedjor FY 2008: 70%)

Adirondack ./ 48.2% 38.0% 70.0% (21.8%) 1.8

Blue Water 27.9% (4.7%) 70.0% (42.1%) (0.2)

CaDitols ./ 86.0% 11.4% 77.7% 8.3% 0.9

Carolinian ./ 39.3% 13.3% 70.0% (30.7%) 1.5

Cascades 64.7% 5.0% 70.0% (5.3%) (1.3)

Downeaster 70.6% (7.4%) 80.4% (9.8%) (0.8)

EmDire Service 75.2% 13.5% 75.4% (0.2%) (0.1)

Ethan Allen EXDress ./ 43.7% 10.9% 70.0% (26.3%) 0.8

Heartland Fiver ./ 51.6% 23.0% 70.0% (18.4%) 2.3

Hiawatha 87.3% (1.9%) 89.3% (2.0%) (0.6)

Hoosier State 41.5% (1.2%) 70.0% (28.5%) 0.2

IIIini 48.6% (20.4%) 73.2% (24.6%) (2.1)

Illinois ZeDhvr ./ 77.8% 12.6% 70.2% 7.6% 1.3

Kevstone ./ 87.8% 2.4% 86.3% 1.5% 0.5

Lincoln Service 43.1 % 0.3% 70.0% (26.9%) . (0.3)

MaDle Leaf ./ 45.8% 13.4% 70.0% (24.2%) 0.9

Missouri Services 18.6% (9.3%) 70.0% (51.4%) (0.3)

Pacific Surfliner ./ 76.1% 1.3% 77.8% (1.7%) 0.0

Pennsvlvanian ./ 86.7% 15.2% 75.2% 11.5% 0.9

Pere Marquette 22.7% (0.5%) 70.0% (47.3%) (0.5)

Piedmont 70.1% (4.3%) 77.5% (7.4%) (0.4)

San Joaquins ./ 82.6% 14.7% 72.4% 10.2% 1.4

Vermonter 40.7% (17.9%) 70.0% (29.3%) (0.7)

Wolverines 26.3% (7.2%) 70.0% (43.7%) (0.7)

LanK Distance Trains (Goal proposedfor FY 2012: 85%. Minimum targetproposedfor FY 2008: 60%)

Auto Train ./ 81.9% 19.8% 66.7% 15.2% 1.2

California ZeDhvr ./ 30.1% 19.9% 60.0% (29.9%) 2.9

CaDitol Limited ./ 32.6% 9.2% 60.0% (27.4%) 1.5

Cardinal 31.3% (7.7%) 60.0% (28.7%) (1.0)

City of New Orleans 62.3% (23.9%) 85.0% (22.7%) ( 1.0)

Coast Starlieht ./ 60.8% 38.7% 60.0% 0.8% 1.3

Crescent ./ 66.9% 24.0% 60.0% 6.9% 0.8

EmDire Builder 68.8% (4.6%) 75.7% (6.9%) (0.2)

Lake Shore Limited ./ 58.0% 25.6% 60.0% (2.0%) 2.6

Palmetto ./ 51.6% 27.2% 60.0% (8.4%) 3.3

Silver Meteor ./ 66.5% 23.7% 60.0% 6.5% 1.8

Silver Star ./ 45.1% 20.3% 60.0% (15.9%) 0.5

Southwest Chief ./ 65.4% 5.3% 65.1% 0.3% 0.0

Sunset Limited ./ 27.2% 13.7% 60.0% (32.8%) 1.4

Texas Eaele 17.9% (8.9%) 60.0% (42.1 %) (0.8)