the sorry state of amtrak's otp

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yarrow said:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/10/the-sorry-state-of-amtraks-on-time-performance-mapped/?hpid=z5
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You know that Amtrak's On-Time Performance is doing badly when the wonkblog column in the Washington Post writes a column with diagrams and charts on it. There are a long list of reasons for the bad OTP this year as we know; hopefully this summer will be the worst for OTP speaking on a total system-wide basis. Much of the poor OTP can be attributed to inadequate infrastructure investment and capital funding for the NEC, maintenance, rolling stock, public funds for track improvement projects outside of the NEC. But the infrastructure problems are, of course, not limited to rail, the roads, highways, bridges, water & sewage systems are all also underfunded.
I could read the comments on the article which are already up to 73 comments, but that probably won't be a positive experience.

Edit: word fixes!
 
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jis said:
Actually, when I ride Amtrak on the NEC I certainly have definite expectations of being on time or within 5 minutes or so of the timetable. On LD routes it is another matter altogether.
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Same with me when I ride the Cascades. Now I know you will be stunned at this piece of impeccable logic :lol: but the longer the trip the greater the possibility something can go wrong. Amazing how I came up with that on my own, isn't it ;)
 
I think it is a stupid article, to slate Amtrak for delays is fine, but why not print the full truth: almost all delays are caused by the host railroads. Host railroads that find Amtrak trains disrupt their main business, and would cheer loudly if Amtrak vanished tomorrow.

Ed :cool:
 
On the LSL today it klooks like we will get into Chicago somewhere between 2:40 and 3 hours late. Of that the contribution of individual operating RRs involved are roughly the following:

MNRR: 0

Amtrak: 1:10

CSX: 0:40

NS: the remaining amount

So Amtrak will turn out to be possibly the largest contributor to the delay.

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jis said:
On the LSL today it klooks like we will get into Chicago somewhere between 2:40 and 3 hours late. Of that the contribution of individual operating RRs involved are roughly the following:

MNRR: 0

Amtrak: 1:10

CSX: 0:40

NS: the remaining amount

So Amtrak will turn out to be possibly the largest contributor to the delay.
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Checking Amtrak status maps, #49(7/11) arrived at CHI 3 hours late. Do you know what happened at ALB to cause #49, which arrived at ALB only 4 minutes late with 449 arriving early(!!), to then depart ALB 1:06 late? Checking 49(7/10), the LSL was lost an hour at ALB on Thursday as well.
The LSL OTP numbers are way down for the FY to date so far. The LSL OTP was down to 33% for the May 2014 and the CL was even worse at 19.4% for the month of May. Has it gotten so bad that the crews have mostly given up trying to on keep the LSL on schedule?

For the Amtrak responsible delays, the ACS-64s should help with the NEC OTP by being more reliable that the aging AEM-7s and less than a success HHP-8s. The P-42 reliability problems will likely persist as one cause of delays and breakdowns en route. But those are only a part of the Amtrak caused delays on a system wide basis. According to the monthly reports, the largest contributor to Amtrak responsible delays is Passenger Related, then Crew & Systems. So how does Amtrak reduce "Passenger Related" delays? But I suspect that Passenger Related is a rather board catch-all category which covers crews taking their time to board passengers on some trains and waiting for late connecting trains.
 
RyanS said:
amamba said:
And the fun response to that! I tweeted them that I had both an amtrak credit card AND old timey amtrak posters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/07/10/our-schizophrenic-relationship-with-amtrak/
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Interesting.

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ImageUploadedByAmtrak Forum1405156824.723423.jpg
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There was supposed to be a screenshot of the poll with that, but the stupid app screwed it up.

This is what I found interesting:

IMG_0858.PNG
 
ALB apparently has a single yard crew to handle all engine changes and LSL yard work. When 48, 64 or 68 and 49 show up within the same one hour window general chaos prevails and everything gets delayed. These days apparently this is not such an uncommon occurrence. Solution is probably a second crew, but who is going to pay for it? NY State or Amtrak?

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Ryan I did think the poll results were interesting. My husband voted with the "love/hate relationship". I picked "love." But it's an internet poll so its hard to know a) where it was publicized and b) if it was from the washington post if its mainly NEC riders who DO find amtrak useful.
 
jis said:
ALB apparently has a single yard crew to handle all engine changes and LSL yard work. When 48, 64 or 68 and 49 show up within the same one hour window general chaos prevails and everything gets delayed. These days apparently this is not such an uncommon occurrence. Solution is probably a second crew, but who is going to pay for it? NY State or Amtrak?
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The cost of a second crew adds up if it is there 365 days a year. Doubt that Amtrak or NY State would really want to pay for it, if it affects only the LD or Canadian bound/origin trains. So its a choice between holding down the operating costs versus keeping the OTP up. It is pretty clear that this year, OTP is mostly losing those tradeoff decisions.
 
The solution is to change the schedules. The westbound LSL is currently scheduled to sit at the station during the exact time when the southbound Adirondack and Maple Leaf go through Albany.

The Performance Improvement Plan proposed an earlier eastbound LSL *and* an earlier westbound LSL, which would solve those problems.
 
Cole737 said:
saxman said:
I'm on Amtrak "worst train" and we are running early the whole time! Not sure what he's talking about.
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Worst train time performance wise? You mean EB? On time the whole time? Really?
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Maybe they were on the ONE train that actually arrived "only 37 minutes late" one day a week ago (well, three hours and thirty seven minutes late when you add the 3 extra hours of additional time Amtrak tacked on to the EB's eastbound schedule to try to account for the Hi-Line issues! Today's EB, still in MN is now running well over 7 hours behind (translates to over 10 hours more travel time than had been the schedule for many years between SEA and CHI--that's terrible!!.
 
jis said:
Changing the schedule will help some, but won't fix the problem. Even now if everything runs on schedule things work out just fine.
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Then there shouldn't be any problem at all at Albany. Minor tweaks in schedule should make sure that the trains never land right on top of each other.
Perhaps finishing the trackwork in Schenectady and Albany will help as it will give more flexibility. I know the engine changes can tie up several tracks; having four rather than three will probably help, and I believe the headshunts are being redesigned too.
 
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The Washington Post Wonkblog section has a new article about the On-Time Performance of the individual Acela and Regional trains sorted by their WAS to NYP and NYP to WAS departure times: Here are the best and worst times to take the train between New York and D.C.

I think the writer only looked at the OTP data on Amtrak's website and not at the actual schedule, because he would have realized the common component of why the mid-day northbound WAS Regionals have poorer total OTP - because they are originating from Virginia. The OTPs are for the endpoint as well, so the numbers may not reflect the WAS to NYP OTP. Opening excerpt:

We know from Amtrak's historical performance data that Northeast Corridor routes enjoy pretty good on-time performance compared to the rest of the system. In June, for instance, Northeast Regional trains had a 76 percent on-time rate, while Acela trains ran at 73 percent. But performance varies considerably by the individual trains running these routes. There can be big performance differences between trains that leave at different times of the day, or different days of the week.

If you were planning a round trip from New York to D.C., what would be the best times to travel to minimize your likelihood of running into train delays? Amtrak's Web site doesn't make it easy to compare performance between trains, so I dug up the numbers and broke them down below.
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The overall OTP numbers for the Acelas and Regionals are worse than they were just several years ago. For FY2012, the endpoint OTP for the Acelas was 89.7% and the NE Regionals 86.5%. FY2014 will come in well under those numbers.

One of the OTP tables in the article:

dc-weekday.jpg
 
I'm surprised that the 0500 departure has one of the worst OTP records.
 
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