But Kummant said the situation has shown some improvement in recent months. And in what he called a sign of better relations, he has been given a sneak peak at the railroads' capital plans, and "they're nothing short of stunning. To further speed up improvements, the freight industry is lobbying for federal tax credits for investments in track and other infrastructure to expand capacity.
One late arrival of the Capitol Limited last week showed how complicated the issue is. The train lost several hours because of "freight interference" on Norfolk Southern Corp. But its problems actually started when it left Chicago an hour and a half late because of mechanical problems, thus missing its time slot. The late arrival was frustrating for Ramos, 44, who started riding the Capitol Limited last year to visit relatives in Chicago.
The Washington resident takes the train to avoid airport security hassles, but said she wouldn't risk it for business travel. Please enter email address to continue. Please enter valid email address to continue. Department of Transportation if it arrives 15 minutes or more after its scheduled time.
Amtrak stretches that to 29 minutes. That trend coincides with the swelling number and length of freight trains. More: New poll suggests Bernie Sanders building lead in Michigan. The problem of late train arrivals has gotten so bad that Amtrak dramatically changed its public stance, after years of glossing over train tardiness.
Congress can fix that. Tell your member of Congress. Now is a timely moment for Amtrak fans to register their wishes, Amtrak officials say. What Amtrak passengers have grown to accept are trains often an hour or more late. Despite that, many Amtrak passengers said they enjoy train travel so much and despise traffic congestion, particularly in the Chicago area, that they would continue riding on Amtrak, hoping that delays will diminish.
And right now, Amtrak said it needs boosters like that when it approaches Congress. One reason that delays are swelling is that so are freight trains.
Locomotive technology and labor rules have evolved to create colossal, slow-moving freight trains well over a mile long — far too long to be diverted to sidings to allow fast Amtrak trains to pass. Such delays are a far cry from the hopes for speedy service that Amtrak has promoted, as it sought funding from federal and state governments with the goal of catching up to the ever-speedier trains in other countries. So-called bullet trains reach m.
Please select from the results below Sign Out. Your browser doesn't support the video tag. Waiting for freight trains is the largest cause of delay to passengers. Freight train interference happens because freight railroads ignore the law. The Rail Passenger Fairness Act will lead to more on time passengers.
Get Our Preference Enforcement Mythbusters. Who is Delaying Amtrak Passengers? What are Freight Train Interference Delays? Password Passwords should be at least 10 characters long and include 1 uppercase and 1 lowercase alpha character, 1 number and 1 special character.
Passwords are case sensitive. Join Thank you for joining Amtrak Guest Rewards. First Name First name should be at least 2 letters. Well, it's gonna be late. Sorry in advance. At least it generally shows up to Philly or Washington, DC, on time more than 80 percent of the time. But expand beyond that, and the numbers are often depressing.
The Auto Train, a bring-your-vehicle ride between Virginia and Florida, had an on-time performance rate of roughly 35 percent in March.
There are a lot of factors that go with this, but probably one that matters more than any other is that these lines are some of the many not actually owned by Amtrak. Why such a stark difference? From a policy paper :. Freight railroads recognize the significant potential benefits of a strong national passenger rail system and work to accommodate passenger trains when mutually-beneficial arrangements can be negotiated, as the many successful examples of passenger trains operating on freight-owned property make clear.
Freight railroads lower shipping costs by billions of dollars each year and produce an immense competitive advantage for our farmers, manufacturers, and miners in the global marketplace. If passenger railroads impair freight railroads and force freight that otherwise would move by rail onto the highways, those advantages would be squandered. Moreover, highway gridlock would worsen; fuel consumption, pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions would rise; and our mobility would deteriorate—outcomes that are completely contrary to the goals of expanding passenger rail in the first place.
This has proved a surprisingly fraught area in the legal space in recent years, by the way. A law meant to give Amtrak some leverage in improving on-time performance has proven hugely controversial with freight train companies, and AAR and Amtrak have been fighting the issue in court ever since. Notably, AAR won a recent round on the issue. The companies that manage those freight trains feel differently.
And there's a lot of competition for these limited resources. Penn Station is not a place people like to hang out for longer than they need to, so the fact that it happened more than once in the span of a few days was particularly maddening.
And on Tuesday, it was horrible on both ends of the commute.
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