On time performance for Amtrak is driven by two factors. The first, is the level of freight traffic on the host railroad. Currently freight traffic, accross all segments are down nearly 10 percent. Between the bottom falling out of the coal business, tariffs impacting intermodal, agricultural and steel production segments, the class one railroads are hurting.
Most of the class ones have adopted " precision railroading, which reduces train counts by combining trains, with freight trains going from 100 plus cars to 150 plus cars. While looking good on paper, and on the balance sheets, they create operational issues which creates bottlenecks. With that said last week, train 30 was an hour and 45 minutes late into Cleveland, causing 29 to be 15 minutes late. We lost an additional 30 minutes because csx dispatchers managed to put us in the hole for every East bound freight. CSX was never a freind of Amtrak from a dispatch point of view, and given a chance this will not change.
The other, is maintenance of way is shut down till spring. once track work resumes, this unavoidable slow down will begin again. The variable is, who will get track first, the host railroad with a never ending number of opposing freight trains or one passenger bearing Amtrak train. I think we all know the answer.
In regards to dining car service, the diner is dead, the new reality is the food service being offered presently. Hopefully Amtrak will tweak it to make it bearable. My perception is it could be made better by the on board crew providing better service and perhaps additional staffing. Dinner selection's we're ok, the break fast was awefull.
