(The following story by Brad Cooper appeared on The Kansas City Star website on February 3, 2009.)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Amtrak trains in Missouri turned in extraordinarily high on-time performance numbers in January that are almost unheard of in recent years.
Trains between Kansas City and St. Louis were on schedule 96 percent of the time in January, according to numbers released today by the Missouri Department of Transportation.
Amtrak got off to a rocky start in fiscal year 2008-09, which began July 1.
As of November, the trains were on schedule about 62 percent of the time, but performance improved in recent months.
The trains had an on-time performance of 70 percent in November and 84 percent in December, officials said.
For the entire fiscal year, trains have been on schedule 72 percent of the time.
In recent years, Amtrak trains had become bogged down in freight traffic on the Union Pacific tracks between St. Louis and Kansas City.
As a result, ridership on the Missouri taxpayer-supported route had been sliding even as Amtrak enjoyed a renaissance elsewhere across the country.
MoDOT officials attributed the turnaround to a combination of better train dispatching by Union Pacific and track repairs that allow the trains to move faster.
They also point to Union Pacific’s $26 million project to eliminate a bottleneck by adding a second track across the Gasconade River. The second track opened in October.
MoDOT officials said they were floored by the extraordinarily high on-time performance in January. They said the improvements are already leading to improved ridership.
Train ridership between Kansas City and St. Louis is up 26 percent from July through December 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
“It proves if you put a good service out there that is reliable, people will respond and use it in growing numbers,” said Brian Weiler, multi-modal director for the state transportation department.
The work is continuing. The state is adding a 9,000-foot siding just west of California, Mo. The siding will allow trains to pass each other without stopping, which should further reduce delays.
The state has finished designing another siding in Knob Noster. Missouri hopes to get federal stimulus money to pay for that project.
“We got the message loud and clear that reliability is the key,” Weiler said. “The public wants a reliable service in order for them to use it and that’s the No. 1 focus.”