U.S. Department

of Transportation

Federal Railroad

Administration

JUL - 1 2009

The Honorable Daniel K. Inouye

Chairman

Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Dear Mr. Chairman:

Section 154 of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related

Agencies Appropriations Act, 2009 (Pub. L. 111-8) requires the Federal Railroad

Administrator to "submit a quarterly report on April 1, 2009, 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 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

!Jl(1Jk

Appropriations. .

Joseph C. Szabo

Enclosures

Administrator 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE

Washington, DC 20590
July 1,2009

July 2009 Report on Amtrak On-Time Performance

Submitted by the Federal Railroad Administrator

Under Section 154 of Pub. L. 111-8

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

(FRA) efforts to catalyze improvements in Amtrak's on-time performance (OTP); and (2) in

keeping with the FRA's April 1,2009 OTP report, an update on Amtrak OTP results and

performance against FRA-established goals.

(1) Recent OTP Improvement Actions

Southeast Corridor: Amtrak continues to benefit from reductions in slow orders and freight train

intelference as a result of the Southeast (1-95) Corridor Pelformance Improvement Plan, which

the FRA required of Amtrak management as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2007 Grant Agreement

between the FRA and Amtrak. For example, through May 2009, slow orders, which are

currently the largest source of delay on this corridor, were down 29 percent. Likewise, freight

train interference delays on the Southeast Corridor have decreased by 40 percent year-over-year

through May.

These delay reductions coincide with an increase in on-time arrivals among Southeast Corridor

trains through May 2009; however, the overall OTP levels of the routes traversing this corridor

have varied. Through May 2009 the Auto Train's endpoint OTP was 86.5 percent, the highest

among Amtrak's long distance trains, while the Palmetto, Silver Star, and Silver Meteor had ontime performances that ranked among the middle of the long distance trains. The Carolinian had

the lowest endpoint OTP among Southeast Corridor trains through May 2009 (63.2 percent) and,

in terms of OTP, fell among the lowest third of short-distance trains outside the Northeast

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. As part of the agreement, Amtrak temporarily

added time to the Zephyr's schedule to account for the UP's track improvement work. As track

work has been completed, Amtrak has gradually removed the added time from the schedule, as

demonstrated in the Spring - Summer 2009 published timetable, which removed an hour from

the Zephyr's schedule.

While UP continues to make progress in reducing delays on the Zephyr's route, Amtrak and

Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) Railway are also implementing a Performance

Improvement Plan (initiated at the suggestion of FRA) for the BNSF's portion of the route

between Chicago, Illinois and Denver, Colorado. On the BNSF segment of the route, freight

train interference was down 21 percent and slow orders were down 14 percent through May

2009. Amtrak attributes the Zephyr's reduction in freight train intelference mainly to changes in

management practices at both BNSF and UP. Such improvements, combined with reduced slow

rders, have improved the reliability of freight and passenger trains along the route.

T

o
Other Recent OTP Developments: Collaborative efforts between Amtrak and host freight

railroads, spurred in part by the increased Federal interest in Amtrak's OTP, has fostered notable

operational successes on certain host rail lines. Through May 2009, freight train interference

delays on the Norfolk Southern (NS) and UP systems were down 68 and 65 percent respectively

year-aver-year. The UP has also been successful over this period at reducing slow order delays

across its network by 44 percent. As a result, a number of Amtrak routes on these host railroads

have had notable year-aver-year improvements in on-time performance. The PennsyLvanian

(which operates over NS trackage) and the CapitoLs (which operate over UP trackage) have the

best endpoint OTP (96.5 and 92.1 percent respectively through May 2009) in the Amtrak system,

while the Crescent (which operates over NS) has been among the top on-time performers among

the long distance trains (with an endpoint OTP of 86.2 percent for the fiscal year-to-date). The

Sunset Limited and Texas EagLe (which traverse UP trackage and historically have been among

Amtrak's least on-time trains) have had year-aver-year OTP increases of 52 and 44 percentage

points respectively through May 2009.

(2) Goals and Route Performance

Attachment A contains updated OTP statistics for all Amtrak routes for the fiscal year-to-date

through May 2009. As the attachment illustrates, almost three-fourths of the routes (30) have

had improvements in OTP (in terms of both improved percent on time and no decrease in

effective speed) through May 2009. Of those routes experiencing OTP improvement, a total of

20 (eight corridor-type and twelve long-distance trains) are meeting or are surpassing their FRAdefined OTP target for FY 2009.

For FY 2009, the on-time perfOlmance across the entire Amtrak system through May was 79.9

percent, an increase of 7.3 percentage points over the previous year. Amtrak's short distance

routes outside of the Northeast Corridor (i.e. "Other Corridor Services") have experienced almost

an eight percentage-point increase year-aver-year (for an average endpoint OTP of 80.1 percent)

while the long-distance trains have experienced over a 16 percentage-point increase during the

same period (for an average endpoint OTP of 74.5 percent). Further highlighting these fiscal

year-to-date OTP improvements, over half of Amtrak's routes have had endpoint OTP increases

of ten percentage points or greater while only two Amtrak routes have experienced declines in

endpoint OTP through May 2009.
Attachment A

Amtrak On-Time Performance: FY 2009

Y D T0 tal th h M

Test 2:

./ Test 1: Constant or

Indicates

both tests

Higher Percent On Time

YTD - May 2009 vs. YTD - May 2008

Better

Effective Speed

were met

for OTP

Progress

FY09 %

On Time

%

Change

from FY08

Proposed

Target

for FY09

% Variance

from FY09

Target

Change in MPH

from October

2007 Baseline

Northeast Corridor Service (Goal proposed for FY 2012: 95%)

Acela 87.0% 2.5% 90.7% (3.7%) (1. 1)

Relidonal Service 79.1% 1.8% 84.8% (5.7%) (1.4)

Other Corridor Services (Goal proposed for FY 2012: 90%. Minimum target proposedfor FY 2009: 75%)

Adirondack ./ 63.0% 15.4% 75.0% (12.0%) 2.2

Blue Water ./ 49.9% 19.6% 75.0% (25.1%) 1.4

Capitols ./ 92.1% 5.4% 80.8% 11.3% 1.5

Carolinian ./ 63.2% 18.4% 75.0% (11.8%) 2.3

Cascades ./ 70.7% 4.8% 75.0% (4.3%) 0.4

Uowneaster 71.4% (2.7%) 82..8% (11.4%) (0.9)

Empire Service 83.8% 10.1% 79.0% 4.8% (1.6)

Ethan Allen Express 57.3% 24.7% 75.0% (17.7%) (2.0)

Heartland Flyer ./ 80.3% 28.6% 75.0% 5.3% 4.7

Hiawatha 86.8% 0.5% 89.5% (2.7%) (0.9)

Hoosier State ./ 54.4% 12.1% 75.0% (20.6%) 0.8

IIIini 88.4% 36.6% 77.4% 11.0% (1.0)

Illinois Zephyr ./ 85.4% 6.0% 75.1% 10.3% 0.6

Keystone ./ 88.4% 0.6% 87.2% 1.1% 0.2

Lincoln Service ./ 69.7% 22.2% 75.0% (5.3%) 1.5

Maple Leaf ./ 61.9% 16.0% 75.0% (13.1%) 1.3

Missouri Services ./ 64.4% 46.2% 75.0% (10.6%) 4.1

Pacific Surfliner ./ 83.4% 5.8% 80.9% 2.5% 0.3

Pennsylvanian ./ 96.5% 6.7% 78.9% 17.6% 1.2

Pere Marquette ./ 35.9% 9.9% 75.0% (39.1 %) 0.4

Piedmont 74.2% (4.0%) 80.6% (6.4%) (1.1 )

San Joaquins ./ 89.2% 4.0% 76.8% 12.4% 1.9

Vermonter ./ 87.7% 54.5% 75.0% 12.7% 0.3

Wolverines ./ 45.5% 15.8% 75.0% (29.5%) 0.7

Long Distance Trains (Goal proposed for FY 2012: 85%. Minimum taTget proposed for FY 2009: 66%)

Auto Train ./ 86.5% 5.9% 71.3% 15.2% 1.4

California Zephyr ./ 59.1% 21.8% 66.3% (7.2%) 4.0

Capitol Limited ./ 67.7% 27.4% 66.3% 1.4% 3.3

Cardinal 49.3% 11.0% 66.3% (17.0%) (0.3)

City of New Orleans 83.7% 9.9% 85.0% (1.3%) (0.1)

Coast Starlight ./ 79.4% 10.0% 66.3% 13.1% 1.7

Crescent ./ 86.2% 14.1% 66.3% 20.0% 1.1

Empire Builder 74.0% 4.1% 78.0% (4.1%) (0.5)

Lake Shore Limited ./ 75.5% 17.5% 66.3% 9.2% 3.5

Palmetto ./ 70.9% 13.7% 66.3% 4.7% 4.0

Silver Meteor ./ 74.6% 6.7% 66.3% 8.4% I.7

Silver Star ./ 66.9% 21.8% 66.3% 0.6% 1.5

Southwest Chief ./ 86.4% 12.3% 70.1% 16.3% 0.6

Sunset Limited ./ 74.6% 52.0% 66.3% 8.4% 2.9

Texas Eagle ./ 68.1% 44.3% 66.3% 1.9% 1.5

ear-to- ate s rougl ay